How we structure location data.

CityCalc organizes city data across eight categories used by site selection advisors globally. Data is sourced from official government and multilateral sources wherever possible.

The eight data categories

1. City Overview — population, economic base, language, time zone, currency, airport access, political system
2. Incentives — tax rates, free zones, special economic zones, foreign ownership rules, visa programs, profit repatriation
3. Talent & Costs — salary benchmarks by role level, workforce characteristics, employer obligations, localization requirements, key universities
4. Real Estate — grade A office costs, residential costs, lease terms, recommended districts
5. Legal Framework — legal system, courts, employment law, probation and notice periods, data protection
6. Infrastructure — internet connectivity, VOIP and VPN access, power reliability, disaster risk
7. Competitive — major firms present, anchor institutions, attrition and market dynamics
8. Risk — political, currency, rule of law, security

The scoring framework

Each city receives three composite scores on a 0–100 scale:

• Investment Readiness — institutional ease of doing business, including legal framework quality, regulatory stability, and market access
• Talent Score — workforce depth, English proficiency, educational pipeline, and professional market maturity
• Cost Index — aggregate operating cost benchmark where higher scores indicate lower costs

Sources

• International Monetary Fund country reports and databases
• World Bank data and country economic memoranda
• National statistics authorities and central banks
• Free zone authorities, investment promotion agencies, and finance center registrations
• Transparency International and similar governance indicators
• Published reports from major professional services firms

Data vintage and verification

Data is reviewed on a rolling basis. Where a value has not yet been verified to our standards, it displays as a placeholder (—) rather than an estimated number. We prefer an honest gap over a confident guess.

The CityCalc assessment

Each city profile includes a short CityCalc assessment — our editorial view on how a firm should think about the market. These are clearly marked and separate from the data itself.