Numbeo

{{Short description|Crowd-sourced online database}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}

{{Infobox website

| name = Numbeo.com

| logo = Numbeo.com logo.jpg

| url = {{url|www.numbeo.com}}

| foundation = April 2009

| founder = Mladen Adamović

| type = Crowd-sourced online database of cost of living, real property prices, and quality of life statistics

| country_of_origin = Serbia

| registration = Optional

| language = Multilingual

| owner = NUMBEO DOO Beograd-Palilula

| launch_date = April 2009

}}

Numbeo is a Serbian crowd-sourced online database of perceived consumer prices, real property prices, and quality of life metrics. The website was founded in April 2009 by former Google employee Mladen Adamović,{{Cite press release |title=Cost of Living Information Website, Numbeo.com, Announces New Software Release which Contains Information for More than 300 Cities |url=https://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3143234.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091129131435/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3143234.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 November 2009 |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=PRWeb |publisher=Cision Ltd.}}{{Cite web |date=2021-03-28 |title=Cene nekretnina u Beogradu u vrhu liste evropskih gradova |trans-title=Real estate prices in Belgrade top the list of European cities |url=https://www.rts.rs/lat/magazin/Zanimljivosti/4312152/cene-nekretnina-u-beogradu-u-vrhu-liste-evropskih-gradova.html |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=Radio Television of Serbia |agency=Tanjug}} to enable users to share and compare information about the cost of living between countries and cities.{{cite web | url=http://www.icaew.com/en/library/subject-gateways/human-resources/cost-of-living-comparisons |website=ICAEW|publisher=The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales|location=London|title=Sources for cost of livings reports and comparisons |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190918173455/https://www.icaew.com/library/subject-gateways/human-resources/cost-of-living-comparisons |archivedate=18 September 2019}} Since 2012, the website has been operated by NUMBEO DOO Beograd-Palilula, a Serbian private limited company run by Adamović.{{Cite web |title=Претрага привредних друштава |trans-title=Company search |url=https://pretraga2.apr.gov.rs/unifiedentitysearch |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=Business Registers Agency (Serbia) |language=sr |id=20853514}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.numbeo.com/common/about.jsp|title=About This Website - Numbeo.com|website=www.numbeo.com}} According to Adamović, the website earns money through advertising and the sale of subscriptions to its API.{{Cite web |last=Adamović |first=Mladen |title=How does Numbeo.com make money? How successful is it? |url=https://www.quora.com/How-does-Numbeo-com-make-money-How-successful-is-it |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=Quora |language=en}}

Numbeo's crowd-sourced data can be inserted or altered by anyone accessing the website, and is not peer-reviewed.{{cite book |last1=Iacobucci |first1=Dawn |title=Continuing to Broaden the Marketing Concept |date=17 September 2020 |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing |isbn=978-1-78754-824-4 |page=253 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5sLEAAAQBAJ&dq=numbeo&pg=PA253 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Guzman |first1=Martin |title=Toward a Just Society: Joseph Stiglitz and Twenty-First Century Economics |date=28 August 2018 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-54680-5 |page=92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50pBDwAAQBAJ&dq=numbeo&pg=PT92 |language=en}}{{Cite web | url=http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/international/harare-has-poor-healthcare-and-political-violence-but-property-is-relatively-inexpensive/2012082956292 |title = Harare has poor healthcare and political violence, but property is relatively inexpensive | website = propertyobserver.com.au | date= 29 August 2012 | first = Alistair | last = Walsh | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170918064737/https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/finding/location/expat-and-international/18102-harare-has-poor-healthcare-and-political-violence-but-property-is-relatively-inexpensive.html| url-status=live | archive-date = 18 September 2017 | quote=Serbian-run website Numbeo lists the inner-city apartment prices in Harare at $1,000 a square metre. The numbers are based on user contributed figures and should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.}} Data is also manually gathered by the operator, from sources such as company and governmental websites,{{Cite web |last=Fox |first=David |date=2022-01-28 |title=Bermuda trails most countries in purchasing power |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/local-business/business/article/20220128/bermuda-trails-most-countries-in-purchasing-power/ |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=The Royal Gazette |language=en-US |quote=Numbeo also uses links to government websites, supermarket and restaurant sites with prices and other relevant sources, together with publicly available links to pricing for taxi and bus services.}}{{Cite web |last=Sibthorpe |first=Clare |date=2016-07-22 |title=Canberra home to the highest quality of living worldwide, according to Numbeo data |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/act/canberra-home-to-the-highest-quality-of-living-worldwide-website-numbeo-reports-20160722-gqb9gn.html |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=The Age |language=en |quote=Numbeo gathers statistics from a range of sources, such as websites of supermarkets, taxi company websites, governmental institutions, newspaper articles and other surveys.}}{{Cite web |last=Anthony |first=John |date=2018-01-19 |title=Hamilton's cost of living more expensive than Auckland, international index says |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/100687712/hamiltons-cost-of-living-more-expensive-than-auckland-international-index-says |access-date=2023-06-02 |website=Stuff |language=en |quote=Numbeo says it manually collects data from "authoritative sources".}} which is done in half-year intervals;{{Cite web |last=Ghazanchyan |first=Siranush |date=17 January 2020 |title=Yerevan named among world's most expensive cities |url=https://en.armradio.am/2020/01/17/yerevan-among-most-expensive-cities-in-the-world/ |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=Public Radio of Armenia |language=en-US}} it is then combined with user-generated data by giving it extra weight in the final score calculation, according to the company.{{Cite web |title=Methodology and Motivation |url=https://www.numbeo.com/common/motivation_and_methodology.jsp |access-date=2023-06-02 |website=www.numbeo.com |quote=Numbeo's data collection process involves a combination of user-generated input and manually gathered information from reputable sources such as supermarket and taxi company websites, and governmental institutions. The manually collected data from each source are entered twice yearly and given a weight that is three times higher than user-generated input to improve the reliability of the data.}} As of 2017, it was the largest database of user generated data about cities in the world.{{cite journal |last1=Yilmazkuday |first1=Demet |last2=Yilmazkuday |first2=Hakan |title=The role of direct flights in trade costs |journal=Review of World Economics |date=2017 |volume=153 |issue=2 |pages=255 |doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0263-z |jstor=26748568 |s2cid=254166486 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26748568 |issn=1610-2878}} As of 2020, this possibly applied to (user generated) data on housing prices as well.{{cite journal |last1=Aizawa |first1=Toshiaki |last2=Helble |first2=Matthias |last3=Lee |first3=Kwan Ok |title=Housing Inequality in Developing Asia and the United States: Will Common Problems Mean Common Solutions? |journal=Cityscape |date=2020 |volume=22 |issue=2 |page=33 |jstor=26926892 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26926892 |issn=1936-007X}} The quality of life index is a combination of eight sub-indexes: purchasing power, safety, healthcare, cost of living, property price to income ratio, traffic commute time, pollution, and climate.{{Cite web |last=Martin |first=Will |date=2017-05-05 |title=The 26 major cities with the highest quality of life in the world |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/world-cities-with-best-quality-of-life-deutsche-bank-mapping-the-worlds-prices-index-2017-5 |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Graff |first=Amy |date=2019-05-20 |title=San Francisco now has the highest salaries in the world |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-highest-salaries-in-the-world-zurich-13863696.php |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=SFGATE |language=en-US}}

The website's "Crime Index", intended to serve as an overall crime level estimate, is compiled from answers to user surveys, which have been processed by a Java-programmed backend to produce country- or city-level ratings on a 100-point scale, with higher values indicating worse crime. There is also a "Safety Index", with higher scores indicating a safer city.{{Cite journal |last1=Orii |first1=Lisa |last2=Alonso |first2=Luis |last3=Larson |first3=Kent |date=2020-11-13 |title=Methodology for Establishing Well-Being Urban Indicators at the District Level to be Used on the CityScope Platform |journal=Sustainability |language=en |volume=12 |issue=22 |pages=9458 |doi=10.3390/su12229458 |issn=2071-1050 |doi-access=free |hdl=1721.1/128701 |hdl-access=free }} Numbeo's data points on crime have been criticized by academics{{Cite web |author=Claire-Line Nass |date=17 May 2022 |title=Attention à ce classement des "villes les plus criminelles d'Europe" dominé par des métropoles françaises |trans-title=Beware of this ranking of "Europe's highest crime rate cities" dominated by French metropolises |url=https://factuel.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32A83V8 |website=Factuel (Agence France-Presse) |lang=fr}} and by the media as unreliable and, at times, misleading.

• In 2017, a Swedish man manipulated the crime stats of the Lund, Sweden by repeatedly submitting negative ratings in this category, at a time when the relevant data set was very small. In less than a day, he succeeded in making it show up as the most dangerous city in the world on the website's "Crime Index Rate" page. He commented: "Numbeo should hardly be considered stats, it’s more like reviews. Anyone, anywhere in the world can change the data, as many times as they want. Completely anonymously."{{cite web |last1=Lee |first1=Rodsen |title=How one Swede made a city the world's 'most dangerous' to expose fake stats |url=https://www.thelocal.se/20170117/how-one-swede-made-a-city-the-worlds-most-dangerous-to-expose-fake-stats/|website=thelocal.se |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en |date=17 January 2017}}
• In 2022, a Numbeo claim that Bradford, England was "Europe's most dangerous city" went viral on social media and was reported on in British press.{{cite news |last1=Meek |first1=Natasha |title=Bradford is Europe's 'most dangerous' city? Police force slams viral claim |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/20674003.police-rubbish-claims-bradford-europes-dangerous-city/ |access-date=23 September 2022 |work=Telegraph & Argus |date=19 August 2022 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Mwitumwa |first1=Monde |title=Yorkshire city is 'most dangerous in Europe' and police boss is furious |url=https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/police-boss-furious-yorkshire-city-24808142 |access-date=23 September 2022 |work=YorkshireLive |date=20 August 2022 |language=en}} Another English city, Coventry, was ranked second in this statistic, which was disputed by a local newspaper journalist—citing higher official crime rates in various other English cities/counties.{{Cite web |last=Thompson |first=Danny |date=2022-08-24 |title=Is Coventry really the second-most dangerous city in Europe? |url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-really-second-most-dangerous-24835046 |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=Coventry Telegraph |language=en}}
• In 2022, David Weinberger expressed criticism of the site's methodology of measuring crime rate, saying: "It is misleading to claim to have derived from this a representation of the highest-crime rate cities: what is presented are cities which are perceived as those with the most crime, by a certain number of Internet users. But for studies in the social sciences, this approach is worthless." The crime and security indices' measurements are derived from answers to a 15-point questionnaire. Experts responding to AFP's fact-checkers' inquiries regarding reliability of Numbeo's crime stats contended that this does not make for a methodologically valid victimization survey, due to non-representative sampling, and that—especially with respect to cross-country comparisons which are considered effectively impossible to validly construct (except for certain crimes that may be experienced the same way across communities, such as car theft)—the site's information is false.