# Data sources and reuse notes

Snapshot retrieval date: 2026-10-20. Display currency: USD as supplied in the source export. No exchange-rate conversion or local interpolation was performed.

## CostCompass city price dataset

- Publisher / dataset description: <https://costcompass.net/data>
- Download endpoint: <https://costcompass.net/data/prices.csv>
- License stated for the dataset: [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Attribution: “CostCompass, city price dataset, retrieved 2026-10-20, CC BY 4.0.”
- Source observation window represented in the downloaded snapshot: 2026-09-16 through 2026-10-19.

The downloaded file exports item-level prices backed by the publisher's live source collection. This prototype preserves the source item and category, unit, published USD value and range, observation count, observed dates, reported source, and CostCompass city page for each included row. Values are not computed into a city average or a full monthly living-cost estimate. The prototype displays individual item records only; it does not accept a monthly budget or calculate an affordability result.

The planner contains ten profiles in each of the United States, China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and South Korea.

### City-level coverage in this snapshot

| Country | City profiles | Cities with at least one item-price record |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| United States | 10 | 10 |
| China | 10 | 4 |
| Japan | 10 | 3 |
| Thailand | 10 | 4 |
| Malaysia | 10 | 3 |
| South Korea | 10 | 2 |

Coverage means at least one row exists; it does not mean all expense types exist. A city with no source rows has no displayed price. Individual categories absent from a city are also left absent. The counts may change when a new snapshot is reviewed and imported.

## City photographs

Photographs were retrieved from Wikimedia Commons. Each photo record in `../city-price-snapshot.json` carries its media title, creator, license, license URL, Commons source page, and local image path. This metadata is displayed under the relevant city photo and preserved in `../city-photo-attributions.json`. Licensing is per file; check its linked source and license before redistributing this snapshot. Thirty-nine of the sixty city profiles have a photo in the current snapshot.

## Reproducibility and limitations

The original downloaded source files are retained under `data/sources/` for audit. The normalized website snapshot is `data/city-price-snapshot.json`. These are dated snapshots, not live API results. Verify the publisher's current license and the underlying source record before refreshing or expanding distribution. Do not describe the displayed observations as a citywide average, guaranteed quote, complete retirement budget, or a promise of availability at the named source.