Moving to West Bank

Today we look at moving to West Bank in Palestinian Territories from Auckland in New Zealand. 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 West Bank people speak Arabic, Hebrew and English. In Auckland people speak English and Maori.

The West Bank is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area. The first planned Palestinian city named Rawabi will be built north of Ramallah, with the help of funds from Qatar. Most major international corporations have an Auckland office, as the city is the economic capital of the nation.

The overall cost of living rank in West Bank is 156 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with middle cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Auckland to West Bank will experience a change in cost of living of -20.2%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, West Bank is ranked as an extreme hardship location with a hardship index of 40% compared to Auckland with a hardship index of 10% which is a minimal hardship location.

Source: Cost of living West Bank, Palestinian Territories as at July 2011.