Saturday, September 10, 2011

Moving to Johannesburg

Today we look at moving to Johannesburg in South Africa from Dakar in Senegal. 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 Johannesburg people speak 11 official languages including English, Afrikaans, Sesotho, Setswana, Xhosa and Zulu. In Dakar people speak French (official) and Wolof.

Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal. Johannesburg is one of the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the world, and is also the world's largest city not situated on a river, lake, or coastline. Johannesburg is one of the world's leading financial centres and it is the economic and financial hub of South Africa, producing 16% of South Africa's gross domestic product, and accounts for 40% of Gauteng's economic activity. Dakar is the westernmost city on the African mainland and is a major regional port.

The overall cost of living rank in Johannesburg is 115 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with middle cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Dakar to Johannesburg will experience a change in cost of living of 3.2%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Johannesburg is ranked as a high degree of hardship location with a hardship index of 30% the same as Dakar.

Source: Cost of Living Johannesburg South Africa as at July 2011.

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