Bermuda is a laggard in terms of Numbeo’s Local Purchasing Power Index for the new year.

But the island remains firmly atop the Cost of Living Index.

The database lists Hamilton as more than 50 per cent more expensive than “the Big Apple”, excluding accommodation expenses such as rent or mortgage, which is said to be cheaper, about 95 per cent as costly as New York.

But it’s a far cry from No 2 and 3 on the list, the Swiss cities of Basel and Zug, that are a mere 31 per cent and 30 per cent more expensive than New York.

The continuously updating Numbeo indices use New York City as a baseline, with a variety of factors tracked.

Local Purchasing Power is about buying goods and services in a given city relative to the average net salary in that city.

With an index of 79, Bermudians with an average salary are said to be able to buy 21 per cent fewer goods and services than New York City residents with an average salary.

Numbeo invites citizens to help it to improve its data, inviting residents to share their own experiences for prices they have encountered, feeding a continuously updating database.

The site received 297 Bermuda entries in the past 12 months by 31 different contributors, with the last update this month.

Numbeo says it is the world’s largest cost of living database, a crowdsourced global collection of quality of life information including housing indicators, perceived crime rates, and quality of healthcare, among many other statistics.

There were 7,482,597 prices in 10,503 cities entered by 626,419 contributors.

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.

Numbeo says of island prices:

• Family of four estimated monthly costs are $6,719.33 without rent.

• A single person estimated monthly costs are $1,843.76 without rent.

• Cost of living in Bermuda is, on average, 107.90 per cent higher than in United States.

• Rent in Bermuda is, on average, 143.96 per cent higher than in United States.

The report says the average monthly net salary has the average income clearing nearly $6,000 ($5,953.03) after taxes, or $71,436.36 a year.

The report also states that motorists are paying $8.26 a gallon when they fill up.

But that is not entirely accurate. The price at the pump just went up a fortnight ago to about $8.45 a gallon.