Moving to Windhoek

Today we look at moving to Windhoek in Namibia from Nouakchott in Mauritania. 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 Windhoek people speak English (official), Afrikaans, German, Oshivambo, Herero and Nama. In Nouakchott people speak Arabic (official), French and others.

Windhoek is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Namibia. Nouakchott is the capital and by far the largest city of Mauritania. Windhoek is the social, economic, and cultural centre of the country. Nouakchott is the administrative and economic centre of Mauritania.

The overall cost of living rank in Windhoek is 150 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with middle cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Nouakchott to Windhoek will experience a change in cost of living of 35.4%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Windhoek is ranked as a high degree of hardship location with a hardship index of 30% compared to Nouakchott with a hardship index of 40% which is an extreme hardship location.

Source: Cost of living Windhoek, Namibia as at July 2011.