Cost of Living & Breathing Index

What is the Cost of Living & Breathing Index?

The Cost of Living & Breathing Index rolls two numbers that already live separately on this site, today's Air Quality Index reading and how the local fuel price compares to that day's national average, into one 0 to 100 score per city. It exists for a practical reason: someone weighing a job offer in one city against another, or deciding where to relocate, usually ends up opening two separate pages and doing that comparison by hand. This page does it for over 200 Indian cities at once, however many Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) stations reported a reading that day, so a city like Kurukshetra in Haryana, clean air and fuel close to the national average, scores 100, while a city like Rajamahendravaram in Andhra Pradesh, an AQI of 306 on the day this was checked, scores 57 on the same scale.

How the Score Is Calculated

Every city starts at 100 points. Today's CPCB Air Quality Index reading takes off up to 40 of those: nothing comes off at AQI 50 or under (CPCB's own Good band), 10 points at 51 to 100, 20 at 101 to 200, 30 at 201 to 300, and the full 40 at 301 and above. Fuel price takes off up to 30 more, scaled to how far the city's petrol price sits above that day's national average, nothing comes off if it's at or below average. Most Indian states set petrol at the state level rather than city by city, so cities sharing a state generally share this half of the score too. Nothing else feeds into it. Gold price and a flat seasonal number were both tried and dropped early on, since neither actually varies from one city to the next on a given day, which made the score worse, not better, at telling cities apart.

How to Interpret the Score

There's no separate danger scale here the way there is for AQI on its own, just how much air quality and fuel price together have chipped away from a perfect 100. Because air quality alone can only cost 40 points and fuel only 30, the lowest a city can score is 30, not zero, so anything under 60 already reflects close to the worst combination this scale can show, not a city in visible crisis. Above 80 means both inputs are close to their best band: air clean enough to skip a mask outdoors, and fuel at or below the national average that day. Anything sitting in the 60s or below is worth clicking through to that city's own page, since the combined score alone won't tell you which of the two, dirtier air or pricier fuel, is actually driving it down.

Best Times to Check & Decision Making

Scores recompute once a day, so checking first thing gives that day's actual number rather than yesterday's. It's most useful side by side, comparing two or three specific cities before a move or a relocation decision, rather than read in isolation, since one city's score alone means little without something to measure it against. It's worth saying plainly what this isn't: it's not a full cost of living measure, rent, groceries, school fees and healthcare aren't in it at all, it only tracks the two things named in its formula above. Anyone actually relocating should treat this as a quick first filter alongside the fuel and air quality pages themselves, not a replacement for the harder homework a real move deserves.