Cost of living

Living costs are the costs that must be expended by a household to make a living.

As costs of living, the total expenses at home and abroad to apply:

• Catering
• Accommodation
• Clothing
• Hygiene and personal care
• Education and training
• Entertainment, amusement, sports and travel
• Religious care
• For the keeping of animals
• For the maintenance and operation of vehicles, vessels and aircraft, etc.
• And expenses for servants.

To determine the cost of living by the Federal Statistical Office uses a so -called shopping. This includes the consumption habits of an average household of four people. However, since for example, the expenditure of the ( often compulsory ) health insurance in your shopping cart missing, the cost of living does not include all the expenses for a household. In addition to the respective goods and their quality are also the average in a time period (usually one month ) quantities purchased important ( Wägungszahl ). From the goods and their quantities " weighted " goods prices ( weighted average of the prices of goods ) the monthly cost of living are determined. To enable comparisons with previous years, reference is made to the cost of living index.

One of the European leaders in terms of amounts of the cost of living belongs mainly to Switzerland.