Global Cost of Living Comparisons

Mercer LLC released it's 2012 cost of living survey which compares the cost of living in different cities for US expatriates. As they describe below:

"Mercer's Cost of Living rankings are released annually and measure the comparative cost of living for expatriates in 214 major cities. We compare the cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. We use New York City as the base city for the rankings and the US dollar as the base currency. 

Two main factors determine a city's position in Mercer's Cost of Living rankings: 

1. the relative strength of the relevant currency against the US dollar in the 12 months between ranking (March 2011 to March 2012 in this case); and   
2. price movements over the 12 month-period compared to those in New York City as the base."

The below infographic is not in order but is a sampling of the different cities. The top 50 most expensive cities can be seen here.
(hover over and click enlarge to make bigger. Or click here if does not work)

by newsillustrator. Browse more data visualizations.

20 Largest Private Companies in the U.S.

Here is a look at the 20 largest private companies in the U.S.

Interesting how many of them (8 of the 20) are in some way highly involved in food -- Cargill, MARS, Publix, C&S Wholesale Grocers, US Foods, H-E-B, Meijer and Reyes Holdings (and although not grouped as such below, you could arguably add Love's Travel Stops, Pilot Travel Centers and Aramark to that group -- bringing it to 11 of the 20). Think any of these will go pubic?

Click image to enlarge

by hightable. Browse more infographics.

Consumer Spending: Where does your money go?

According to an ongoing Gallup poll the average American reports spending $66 per day, not including the purchase of a home, car, or regular household bills. This is down from $104 per day reported in January 2008, the month after the recession started (isn't it great the recession is over!)

Below is a nice infographic from Credit Donkey on how households spend their money. How does your spending stack-up? I'm definitely over on the percent I'm allocating to the "away from home" food budget. Ah, the downfall of city living!  

Am I the only one surprised that the average person in the US still writes about 8 checks per month?

The Numbers behind Valentines Day - Infographic Mashup

Here is a mashup of pieces of infographics from around the web showing the numbers behind Valentines Day. These are from Frugal Dad, H&R Block, FedEx, OverStock.com, OnlineMBA, History.com, LiveScience.com, Monetate & Boticca (you can click on each image to see it's full corresponding infographic). Am I missing some good ones?

Infographic All About Gold. How about Platinum?

At the bottom of this post is an interesting infographic about Gold provided by numbersleuth. So if all the gold in the world would provide 5 rings for every person......what would it be for platinum? And the better question is, since platinum is the most rare of precious metals and actually has industrial uses as well, why is platinum over $200/oz cheaper than it's less rare counterpart? 

History says we have an anomaly (although not yet at record levels). Maybe by the time platinum gets it's own infographic the ratio will be a little more normalized.......

(click image to see larger on numbersleuth)