The 2019 Cost of Living Index, produced by crowd-sourced global database Numbeo, ranked the cost of living in Beirut as the 196th highest among 433 cities around the world and the second highest among 22 Arab cities. Also, the cost of living in Beirut was the highest among 92 cities in upper middle-income countries (UMICs) included in the survey. Based on the same set of cities included in the 2018 and 2019 surveys, Beirut's rank changed from 194th place in the 2018 survey to 190th place in the 2019 survey, reflecting a relative increase in the cost of living. The Cost of Living Index is an indicator of consumer goods prices, such as groceries, restaurants, transportation and utilities. Numbeo benchmarks the Index against New York City. It also issues a Rent Index, which is an estimation of apartment rents in a city compared to New York City rents. Numbeo relies on residents' inputs and uses data from official sources to compute the indices.  

According to the Cost of Living Index, consumer goods in Beirut are more expensive than in Barcelona, Detroit and Al Aïn in the UAE, while they are less costly than in Madrid, Belfast and Winnipeg in Canada. Basel in Switzerland ranked as the most expensive city in the world, while Rawalpindi in Pakistan came as the least expensive city globally. Beirut received a score of 60.41 points, which means that prices in Beirut are 39.6% lower than those in New York City.

In parallel, the Rent Index ranked Beirut in 133rd place globally, in fifth place among Arab cities, and in fourth place among cities in UMICs. Globally, renting an apartment in Beirut is more expensive than in Ottawa, Adelaide in Australia, and Manchester in the United Kingdom; while it is less expensive than in Kansas City, Calgary, and in Bakersfield, California. Further, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai and Ajman in the UAE are the only Arab cities that have more expensive rents than Beirut. Lebanon received a score of 29.58 points on the index, which means that rent in Lebanon is 70.4% less expensive than in New York City. San Francisco has the highest apartment rents in the world, while rent in India's Bhopal is the lowest globally.