Methodology · v1

How we gather city cost-of-living numbers

Every cost number on a city page has a source and a check date. This page names the sources, when we last refreshed each, and what the number does and doesn’t claim.

Sources in use today (v1)

Numbeo

Refreshed 2026-Q1

Fields: 1-bedroom rent (outside city centre); monthly student budget

Numbeo aggregates crowd-sourced apartment listings and general cost-of-living indices. It reflects the OPEN-MARKET rent for a 1-bedroom apartment, not the STUDENT rental market (shared rooms, student housing corporations, uni dorms). The student-market signal is a separate integration — see 'Pending' below.

Pending source integrations

Nibud (Netherlands)

Not yet integrated

Fields: Budget norms for students; per-cost-category ranges

Nibud publishes annual student budget norms in NL. When integrated, rent ranges will show p25/p50/p75 rather than a single Numbeo median.

DUO / CBS (Netherlands)

Not yet integrated

Fields: Student housing statistics; official cost-of-study figures

Complements Nibud with government-side data on student housing supply, waiting lists, and reported cost pressure.

Deutsches Studentenwerk (Germany)

Not yet integrated

Fields: Sozialerhebung (student socioeconomic survey)

Published every ~4 years; the authoritative German student-cost dataset. Preferred over Numbeo for any DE city.

University housing offices

Not yet integrated

Fields: Dorm and shared-housing per-city rates

Where universities publish student-housing rates directly, these become the ground-truth rent figure. Aggregated per city and refreshed via cascade change-detection.

What our numbers do NOT claim

  • The Numbeo rent is not the student rental market. It is the 1-bedroom apartment median. Student rentals in shared houses, DUWO-style corporations, or uni dorms typically run considerably lower.
  • We do not scrape commercial rental platforms (Kamernet, WG-Gesucht, ImmoScout, etc.). Their terms of service prohibit it, and a truth-layer built on ToS violations is self-refuting.
  • A single Numbeo number is a POINT ESTIMATE, not a range. Once Nibud / DSW-class sources land, rent will display as a percentile range (p25 / p50 / p75) with a methodology note per city.

Questions or corrections? Contact the SparkPath data team via the site footer. Methodology page v1 · 2026-07-28.