A few months ago I came down hard on the Economist Intelligence Unit for the sloppy research of their MBA rankings.

Now a reader has sent me an extract from their recent worldwide cost of living survey, and again at least some of the research is just wrong (my comments in brackets):

BARCELONA

- Three-course meal £14 [still possible, it's true]
- 1-litre mineral water 44p [only if bought in a supermarket- why is this even in the survey?? mineral water must be like, 1% of average household spend, totally irrelevant INHO]
- 33cl bottle of beer 40p [same as comment above]
- City-centre bus ticket 59p [about right]
- Football ticket: £18 [no idea- don't watch football]
- One-bed flat £40-£50 pw [totally wrong. if you're lucky this budget gets you a room and a shared bathroom; ask any student!]

I’m no cost of living expert, but I can definitively say that this estimate for a ‘one-bed flat’ is off by a factor of at least 2.

Possible explanations? The data could be 4-5 years old, and they have missed the rental inflation of the past few years. Or maybe their definition of ‘Barcelona’ includes the whole province. Or maybe someone just screwed up and wrote £40-£50 instead of the more realistic £100-£150.

Housing being the single largest expense in most peoples’ budgets, one would expect this statistic to be compiled with rather more care than say, the cost of a bus ticket.

Like with the MBA rankings I previously wrote about, once you spot information in a report that you know with absolute certainty is complete rubbish, you’re disinclined to trust any of the content in the report. Having seen this twice now in just a few months from the EIU is disheartening, and makes me wonder just how pervasive this sloppy research reaches across the organisation.