Sunday, July 31, 2011

Moving to Santo Domingo

Today we look at moving to Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic from Kinshasa in Congo Democratic Rep. We highlight cost of living and other major differences likely to be experienced in our series of short blogs on moving between different international locations.
In Santo Domingo people speak Spanish. In Kinshasa people speak French and Lingala, Kiswahili, Kikongo as well as Tshiluba.

Santo Domingo, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Santo Domingo is the center of economic activity in the Dominican Republic. Many national and international firms have their headquarters or regional offices in the city. The city attracts many international firms and franchises due to its geographic location, stability and vibrant economy. Kinshasa ties with Johannesburg for the status of the second largest city in sub-Saharan Africa and the third largest in the whole continent after Lagos and Cairo. Because the administrative boundaries cover such a vast area, over 60% of the city's land is rural in nature, and the urban area only occupies a small section in the far western end of the province.

The overall cost of living rank in Santo Domingo is 237 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with low cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Kinshasa to Santo Domingo will experience a change in cost of living of -21.7%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Santo Domingo is ranked as an extreme hardship location with a hardship index of 40% the same as Kinshasa.

Source: http://www.xpatulator.com as at July 2011.

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