Medellin Cost-of-Living a Relative Bargain; Health Care Outstanding: Global Survey

The latest consumer-generated survey results compiled by global database analyst Numbeo find that Medellin is a relative bargain compared to other major cities in South America, while Medellin’s health-care system quality is ranked best in all of the Americas.

Besides beating-out the U.S. and all its neighbors on relative health-care quality, the consumer survey also indicates that Medellin has the best health-care quality in all of South America and fourth-best globally – right behind Glasgow (UK), Taipei (Taiwan) and Chiang Mai (Thailand).

As for consumer purchasing power, Medellin came in at ninth-place over-all among 22 major South American cities, with a “purchasing power index” (PPI) of “52.56,” according to the survey. 

This “52.56” ranking for PPI compares to the “100” baseline ranking for New York City.  In other words, the survey indicates that it costs about half as much to live in Medellin as compared to New York.

Meanwhile, the “consumer price index” (CPI) for Medellin in the survey came-in at 29.62 – among the lowest of all South American cities. Medellin’s “rent index” was a relatively modest 7.0 among major South American cities. Medellin also enjoyed a relatively low 26.19 for “groceries index,” and a nabbed a relatively low 21.15 index for restaurant prices.
        
The worst PPI in the survey was Concepcion (Chile) at 116.58, followed by Buenos Aires (73.78), Santiago (Chile) at 68.85, and then Brasilia (68.33), according to the survey.

As for purchasing a property, Medellin came in 14th out of 16 major South American cities in “affordability index,” with Santiago (Chile) being the most expensive and Florianopolis (Brazil) the second-most expensive.

Crime Index

As for how Medellin compares to other major South American cities in terms of crimes, Medellin has a much-lower crime index than Brazil’s 10 major cities (Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Sao Paolo, Belo Horizonte, Campinas, Brasilia, Curitiba, Florianopolis and Goiana), and doesn’t come anywhere close to the horrific crime rate in Caracas, Venezuela (at 85.13).

Medellin also has a lower crime index than Lima, Guayaquil, Buenos Aires, Bogota and Montevideo, the survey shows.

Among major South American cities, only Santiago (Chile), Quito and Cuenca (Ecuador), and Vitoria (Brazil) had better crime indices than Medellin (at 56.36), the survey shows. Numbeo considers crime indices between 40 and 60 as “moderate.”