Dan Kelly’s Global Cost-of-Living Survey

In 2014, Dan Kelly, a languages and humanities graduate, accepted a role gathering cost-of-living data for a London-based relocation firm. The data were intended to help corporate clients compare living expenses for employee assignments.

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Kelly visited a new city roughly every two days, using a list of 164 items that covered food, household goods, electronics and services such as internet and haircuts. Over ten years he recorded prices in more than 1,000 supermarkets across 150 countries, from American megastores to electronically labelled shelves in Tokyo. Findings included an apple priced at £4 in Tokyo, a pineapple at 21 pence in Angola versus £5 in Novosibirsk, a 100-gram Lindt bar at £9 in Luanda, and an American-branded Coke at £8 in Nigeria. Items such as canned tomatoes, tuna, Oreos and Twining’s English Breakfast Tea were widely stocked.

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Data collection faced obstacles: an Indian supermarket enforced a strict no-data policy, prompting Kelly to hide his dictaphone under his clothes. Service price inquiries often met mistranslations, leading him to pose questions on behalf of a fictitious “average-length-hair” wife. The role’s intensity limited tenure, as similar positions typically last only a few years.

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The detailed price data allowed the firm’s clients to construct realistic relocation budgets, balancing high-cost and low-cost items within the same market. By standardising a “realistic lifestyle” baseline, multinational corporations could more accurately forecast employee expenses, influencing assignment decisions and compensation structures.

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Kelly described the work as “intense” but “unique,” noting that direct interaction with shopkeepers enhanced data accuracy. He said the shift toward online data collection prompted his 2025 departure after eleven years, and that the experience sharpened his observational skills, leading him to keep tracking petrol prices.

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• “The first line was: could you find the price of an apple in Liberia?” — Dan Kelly, Cost-of-Living Analyst

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• “One of the things I really liked about it was that you always had to go out and walk around. It forced a level of exploration that you wouldn’t usually do.” — Dan Kelly

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• “You could find cheap things and expensive things in the same place,” — Dan Kelly

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• “I sellotaped the dictaphone under my clothes so I could record into it. That was a mark of how seriously I took it.” — Dan Kelly

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Kelly is converting his experience into a comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe and drafting a book that explores the intersections of travel, economics, and human interaction.

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