Moving to Cairo

Today we look at moving to Cairo in Egypt from San Jose in Costa Rica. 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 Cairo people speak Arabic. In San Jose people speak Spanish (official) and English.

Cairo is a megacity and a global city serving as the capital of Egypt. San Jose is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica.
Cairo is the center of Egypt, as it has been almost since its founding in 969 AD. 15% of all Egyptians live there. The majority of the nation's commerce is generated there, or passes through the city. San Jose is the seat of national government, the focal point of political and economic activity, and the major transportation hub of Costa Rica.

The overall cost of living rank in Cairo is 232 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with low cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from San Jose to Cairo will experience a change in cost of living of -3.7%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Cairo is ranked as an extreme hardship location with a hardship index of 40% compared to San Jose with a hardship index of 30% which is a high degree of hardship location.

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