The Most Expensive Cities in the World, Ranked Index by Index

Singapore, Zurich and Hong Kong are the only cities in the top 10 of all four rankings

Four organisations publish the city rankings that are quoted most often when people ask which is the most expensive city in the world. ECA International and Mercer price a basket of goods and services for employees sent abroad by their companies. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) prices more than 200 products and services for expatriates and business travellers. Julius Baer, the Swiss private bank, prices 20 luxury goods and services bought by wealthy residents. Each index uses its own list of cities, its own basket, its own survey dates and its own exchange rates.

Because of these differences, the scores cannot be averaged into one league table, and this page does not try. Each ranking is shown separately below with its edition and survey date. The only comparison made across them is a simple count: how many of the four top 10 lists a city appears in. Singapore, Zurich and Hong Kong are in all four. New York, Geneva and London are in three. No other city reaches more than two.

Three cities everywhere: Singapore, Zurich and Hong Kong make every top 10 whether the basket is priced for expatriates or for the wealthy. Nine more cities, from Copenhagen to Bangkok, appear in just one list.

The table below shows where the most frequently mentioned cities sit in each ranking. A dash for Julius Baer means the city is not one of the 25 the bank covers. The last column is not a cost of living index at all but a housing affordability measure, explained further down: the median home price divided by the median household income.

Sources: ECA International (7 September 2026), Julius Baer (July 2026), Mercer (2024 edition), EIU (30 November 2023), Demographia International Housing Affordability 2026 edition. Lower rank = more expensive; for house price to income, higher = less affordable.

ECA International 2026: New York is the most expensive city for international assignees

ECA International, a London based provider of data for international assignment pay, published its latest cost of living ranking on 7 September 2026. It compares the cost of a basket of goods and services for international assignees in 208 locations. It is the most recent of the four rankings, so it is the best guide to where prices stand for a foreign employee in late 2026.

New York kept first place. Geneva climbed two places to second and overtook London as the most expensive city in Europe, while London stayed third worldwide for a second consecutive year. Zurich rose one place to fourth. Hong Kong fell three places to fifth, and Singapore slipped two places to eighth. Tel Aviv and Bern each gained three places, to sixth and seventh. San Francisco (ninth) and Dubai (tenth) completed the top 10.

The biggest change in the top 20 is the rise of Kinshasa, up 26 places to 19th. ECA links it to copper export earnings, which supported the Congolese franc, and to an 11 percent rise in accommodation costs. Oslo rose 14 places to 15th, Reykjavik 10 places to 13th and Jerusalem nine places to 11th. Los Angeles fell eight places to 20th and Chicago five places to 18th.

Big movers: Kinshasa (+26), Oslo (+14) and Reykjavik (+10) climbed most, while Los Angeles (-8) and Chicago (-5) lost the most ground among the top 20.

Outside the top 20, the moves tell a currency story. Tokyo fell 19 places to 35th even though costs rose 3.2 percent in yen, because the weaker yen made the city cheaper in the currencies assignees are paid in. Riyadh fell 17 places to 32nd and Jeddah 30 places to 57th. In the other direction, a stronger Australian dollar together with higher local prices and rents lifted Sydney 14 places to 28th, and Canberra and Perth 25 places each, to 58th and 62nd. All four Canadian locations in the ranking fell. Average inflation across the ECA basket rose from 2.8 percent to 3.7 percent, and motoring inflation exceeded 4 percent after disruption through the Strait of Hormuz. For the wider picture of price growth by country, see our global inflation statistics.

Julius Baer 2026: Singapore is the costliest city for a premium lifestyle for the fourth year running

The Julius Baer Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report answers a narrower question: where is it most expensive to live well? The 2026 edition, published in July 2026, prices a basket of 20 items in 25 cities: 11 goods (a bicycle, a car, champagne, jewellery, a men suit, residential property, sports equipment, a technology package, a watch, a women handbag and women shoes) and nine services (a business class flight, fine dining, healthcare, a hotel suite, LASIK eye surgery, a lawyer, an MBA, private school and a spa). Ipsos collected the prices for the bank from brand boutiques, websites and authorised sellers in two rounds between November 2025 and March 2026, and data collection for the index ended in late February 2026. Prices include taxes and were converted to US dollars on a fixed date.

Singapore ranked first for the fourth consecutive year. Zurich climbed three places to second and Monaco entered the top three for the first time. Hong Kong slipped one place to fourth, and London, which ran Singapore close in 2025, dropped three places to fifth. Sydney made the biggest climb, six places to eighth. Bangkok reached tenth, up from 11th in 2025 and 17th in 2024. No city in the Americas made the top 10: New York, the highest ranked, fell three places to 11th.

The weights explain much of the result. Residential property counts for 20 percent of the index and cars for 10 percent; the other 18 items share the remaining 70 percent equally. A city with very expensive prime homes and cars therefore ranks high even if a meal or a hotel night is cheaper than elsewhere. Julius Baer names residential property and cars as major cost factors in Singapore. The property item is based on Knight Frank data on the change in average prime price per square metre in 2025 for 23 cities, with Ipsos covering the other two.

Property and cars carry 30 percent: two items decide almost a third of the score, which helps Singapore, Hong Kong and Monaco stay near the top.

Over the 12 months to February 2026 the cost of the whole basket rose by 10.2 percent on average in US dollar terms. Julius Baer attributes much of that to currencies rather than local inflation: the Swiss franc and the euro gained against the dollar, lifting Zurich and Monaco, and a stronger Australian dollar pushed up Sydney. Dubai, whose dirham is pegged to the US dollar, fell seven places, and sterling tracked the dollar more closely, which limited the rise in London. Europe recorded the fastest increase, 14.1 percent, against 10.3 percent in the Americas and 7.4 percent in Asia-Pacific.

Goods outpaced services: jewellery (+16.4 percent) and watches (+15.5 percent) rose fastest, reflecting the price of gold, which has more than doubled since 2024.

Goods rose faster than services this year, reversing the earlier pattern. Jewellery prices rose 16.4 percent and watches 15.5 percent, and luxury goods as a group 12.3 percent, which the bank links to precious metals and leather costs, skilled labour and brand pricing. Our pages on the luxury watch industry and on the most valuable luxury brands cover the companies behind these prices. The report also surveyed 360 high net worth individuals with at least USD 1 million in bankable assets in February and March 2026: more than half would consider travelling abroad to buy luxury goods to avoid tariffs, and about one in four already do. For where the very richest actually live, see our ranking of cities with the most billionaires.

Winners and losers: Sydney (+6) and Sao Paulo (+4) climbed most; Dubai (-7) and Miami (-6) fell furthest, both cities whose prices are tied to the US dollar.

Mercer 2024: Hong Kong topped the ranking for international workers

Mercer, the US based consultancy, compares the cost of more than 200 items, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment, in 226 cities on five continents. New York is the base city and prices are converted to US dollars. The 2024 edition used prices collected in March 2024. As of November 2026, the Mercer ranking page still shows the 2024 edition, so it is the latest public Mercer city ranking.

Mercer described Hong Kong, Singapore and Zurich as the costliest cities for international workers. Four of the top six were Swiss: Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern. New York was seventh, London eighth, Nassau in the Bahamas ninth and Los Angeles tenth. At the other end, the Nigerian capital Abuja ranked last (226th) and Lagos 225th, with Islamabad, Bishkek and Karachi just above them.

The 2024 edition had some of the largest swings of any index. Lagos fell 178 places to 225th, and Santiago fell 73 places to 160th. Mexico City rose 46 places to 33rd and Monterrey 40 places to 115th, while Buenos Aires fell 32 places to 77th. Because Mercer measures every city against New York in US dollars, swings of this size usually reflect exchange rates as much as local prices. Dubai rose three places to 15th, the most expensive city in the Middle East, while Tel Aviv fell eight places to 16th.

Swings of up to 178 places: Lagos lost 178 places in a year and Santiago 73, while Mexico City gained 46 and Monterrey 40.

EIU Worldwide Cost of Living 2023: Singapore and Zurich tied first with an index of 104

The Economist Intelligence Unit has run its Worldwide Cost of Living survey for many years. The 2023 edition, published on 30 November 2023, compared more than 400 individual prices across more than 200 products and services in 173 cities, with prices gathered between 14 August and 11 September 2023. New York is the base city with an index of 100. EIU sells the full survey to subscribers, and the 2023 edition is the most recent one for which we could verify a public top 10 at the original publisher.

Singapore and Zurich shared first place with an index of 104, meaning the basket cost 4 percent more than in New York at the exchange rates of the survey period. Geneva and New York tied third at 100, followed by Hong Kong (98) and Los Angeles (97). Paris was seventh (91), Copenhagen and Tel Aviv tied eighth (89), and San Francisco was tenth (86). Zurich rose from sixth place in the previous edition, helped by the strength of the Swiss franc, while it was the ninth time in eleven years that Singapore ranked as the most expensive city.

Four points separate first from fifth: Singapore and Zurich (104), Geneva and New York (100) and Hong Kong (98) were almost level, so small currency moves can reorder the top.

Prices rose by an average of 7.4 percent year on year in local currency terms across the surveyed cities, slightly slower than the 8.1 percent recorded a year earlier. Utilities rose least, by 5.7 percent, while groceries and transport each rose by more than 8 percent. For electricity costs specifically, see our comparison of electricity prices by country. The biggest falls again reflected exchange rates: Moscow dropped 105 places to 142nd and St Petersburg 74 places to 147th after the rouble lost around 60 percent of its value, and Tokyo fell 23 places to 60th and Osaka 27 places to 70th as the yen weakened. Mexican cities rose with the peso: Santiago de Queretaro climbed 48 places to 51st and Aguascalientes 39 places to 82nd. Berlin and Manchester each rose 31 places to joint 42nd.

The cheapest cities: Damascus in the EIU survey, Abuja in the Mercer ranking

Lists of the cheapest cities look very different from lists of affordable cities. In the EIU 2023 survey, Damascus scored 13, meaning the basket cost 87 percent less than in New York. Tehran (20) and Tripoli (23) followed, then Karachi (28), Tashkent (31) and Tunis (32). Two Indian cities, Ahmedabad (34) and Chennai (37), were in the bottom 11, alongside Lusaka, Lagos and Buenos Aires.

Cheap in dollars, costly for residents: the three cheapest cities, Damascus, Tehran and Tripoli, all faced conflict, sanctions or very high inflation.

A low score usually signals a weak currency and economic stress rather than an easy life. EIU recorded inflation of 321 percent in Damascus and nearly 49 percent in Tehran in the same survey; local prices rose fast, yet the city still ranked cheapest once prices were converted to US dollars. Mercer shows a similar picture: the two Nigerian cities, Abuja and Lagos, ended at the bottom of its 2024 ranking. Julius Baer does not rank cheap cities, and the least expensive of its 25 cities, Vancouver, is still a costly place to live well. Comparing these scores with GDP per capita by country shows how little a dollar based cost index says about local purchasing power.

Why the rankings disagree: the basket, the currency and whose life is being priced

Readers who compare headlines see Singapore, Hong Kong and New York each called the most expensive city in the world, sometimes in the same month. All of those headlines can be correct, because the indexes measure different things. Five differences matter most.

• The basket. The EIU lists its categories as groceries, household supplies, personal care, alcohol, tobacco, clothing, domestic help, recreation, transport and utilities; rent is not among them. Mercer includes housing among its 200 items. Julius Baer prices 20 luxury items and gives residential property a 20 percent weight. A city with costly homes but cheap groceries can rank high in one index and low in another.
• The currency. All four indexes convert local prices into US dollars. When the dollar weakens, cities in Switzerland, the euro area and Australia climb even if local prices are flat. When a currency collapses, cities can fall more than 100 places in a year: Moscow dropped 105 places in the EIU 2023 survey after the rouble lost around 60 percent of its value.
• The timing. The EIU prices were collected in August and September 2023, the Mercer prices in March 2024, the Julius Baer prices between November 2025 and February 2026, and the ECA ranking was released in September 2026. Exchange rates and inflation changed a lot between those dates.
• The city list. ECA covers 208 locations, Mercer 226, the EIU 173 and Julius Baer only 25. Geneva, Tel Aviv and Los Angeles are not in the Julius Baer list, and Monaco appears only there, so its third place has no counterpart elsewhere.
• The person being priced. ECA, Mercer and the EIU are built to help employers set allowances for staff posted abroad. Julius Baer prices the lifestyle of wealthy residents. None of them measures what a typical local household pays.

The last point is the one most often missed. When the EIU named Singapore the most expensive city, the Singapore government responded on 21 November 2024 that the survey is designed to help human resource and finance managers calculate allowances for expatriates and business travellers, and that its basket includes items such as international school fees and expensive restaurant meals that Singaporeans do not buy regularly. It pointed to the Consumer Price Index as the better measure for households, noted that a strong Singapore dollar lowers the cost of imports for residents, and reported that inflation had eased to 2.0 percent in September 2024. For business travel costs specifically, see our business travel in Europe statistics.

Currency effects are easy to underestimate. All four indexes are expressed in US dollars, the currency that also dominates global currency reserves. In the Julius Baer 2026 report, appreciation of the Swiss franc and the euro against the dollar lifted Zurich and Monaco, while Dubai, whose dirham is pegged to the dollar, fell seven places. Dubai and Hong Kong, whose currency is also linked to the dollar, both slipped in the ECA 2026 ranking as well.

Housing: Hong Kong is the least affordable market at 14.1 times household income

For residents, housing is usually the biggest cost, and it is where the gap between cities is widest. The Demographia International Housing Affordability 2026 edition, published by the Center for Demographics and Policy at Chapman University and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, compares 96 major housing markets in eight countries: Australia, Canada, China (Hong Kong), Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. Its measure is the median multiple: the median house price divided by the gross median household income, using data for the third quarter of 2025.

Hong Kong is the least affordable market at 14.1, meaning the median home cost more than 14 years of the median household income before tax. That is an improvement from 16.7 in 2023 and 20.8 in 2019. Sydney is close behind at 14.0, followed by San Jose (11.3), Adelaide (11.2), Vancouver (10.8) and Los Angeles (10.7). Demographia rates any market at 9.0 or above as impossibly unaffordable; 11 of the 96 markets are in that group, and none of the 96 is rated affordable (3.0 or below).

Australia dominates: five of the 15 least affordable markets are Australian, led by Sydney at 14.0, against six in the US.

The least affordable markets are not the same cities that top the expatriate indexes. Singapore, first in two cost of living rankings, has a median multiple of just 4.3, but Demographia measures it on the resale market for Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, not private housing. New York, first in the ECA ranking, is 17th least affordable at 7.5, behind Toronto at 7.6. The most affordable large markets are mostly in the US Midwest and Northeast: Cleveland (3.1), Pittsburgh (3.2), and Edmonton in Canada, Oklahoma City, Rochester and St. Louis (all 3.6), with Sheffield in England and Omaha at 3.7.

Australia is the outlier among countries: its major markets have a median multiple of 9.9, against 4.5 in the United States and 5.2 in the United Kingdom.

Official statistics point the same way. The Office for National Statistics reported on 26 March 2026 that the median home in England cost 7.6 times the median annual earnings of a full time employee in 2025 (a median price of 300,000 pounds against median earnings of 39,300 pounds). London had the highest ratio at 10.6, and the least affordable local authority was Kensington and Chelsea at 25.2. The ONS figure for London is higher than the Demographia figure of 8.5 because it divides by the earnings of one full time worker rather than by household income. For US housing costs and rents, see our US cost of living statistics, which cover the American market in detail.

City by city: how the most cited cities score in each index

Singapore

First in Julius Baer 2026 for the fourth year in a row, tied first in EIU 2023, second in Mercer 2024, but only eighth in ECA 2026 after slipping two places. Its strong currency and very high car and property prices push it up luxury and expatriate rankings. For resident buyers of HDB resale flats, the Demographia median multiple of 4.3 is below the 5.0 median of all 96 markets covered.

Zurich and Geneva

Zurich is the most consistent performer: tied first in EIU 2023, third in Mercer 2024, fourth in ECA 2026 and second in Julius Baer 2026, where it climbed three places on the back of a stronger Swiss franc. Geneva is second in ECA 2026, where it overtook London as the most expensive city in Europe, and was tied third in EIU 2023 and fourth in Mercer 2024. Basel and Bern were fifth and sixth in Mercer 2024, and Bern is seventh in ECA 2026. Switzerland also ranks among the countries with the highest wealth per adult.

Hong Kong

First in Mercer 2024, fourth in Julius Baer 2026, fifth in ECA 2026 and fifth in EIU 2023. Its currency is linked to the US dollar, which gave it no lift in 2026 while the franc and the euro rose, and it slipped in both 2026 rankings. It remains the least affordable housing market in the Demographia survey, at 14.1 times household income in the third quarter of 2025.

New York

First of 208 locations in ECA 2026 and the base city of the EIU and Mercer indexes, where it was tied third in 2023 and seventh in 2024. In Julius Baer 2026 it fell three places to 11th, still the highest ranked city in the Americas. For housing it is less extreme than its reputation: a median multiple of 7.5, below Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and Honolulu.

London

Third in ECA 2026 for the second year running, fifth in Julius Baer 2026 after a three place fall, eighth in Mercer 2024 and outside the EIU 2023 top 10. Greater London has a Demographia median multiple of 8.5, while the ONS measure puts London homes at 10.6 times full time earnings. Our UK population statistics show how the city fits into the wider country.

Dubai

Tenth in ECA 2026, 14th in Julius Baer 2026 after falling seven places, and 15th in Mercer 2024, where it was the most expensive city in the Middle East. Because the dirham is pegged to the US dollar, Dubai drifted down both 2026 rankings while cities with appreciating currencies moved past it. Abu Dhabi is 17th in ECA 2026. Dubai is also home to the tallest of the tallest buildings in the world, the Burj Khalifa.

Sydney and Tokyo

Sydney shows how far the indexes can diverge for one city: eighth in Julius Baer 2026 after a six place jump, only 28th in ECA 2026 (up 14 places), and second least affordable for housing at 14.0 times income. Tokyo, the largest city in the world by some definitions, has moved the other way on a weak yen: 60th in EIU 2023, 35th in ECA 2026 after a 19 place fall, and 17th in Julius Baer 2026. Bangkok, one of the most visited cities by foreign tourists, is tenth in Julius Baer 2026.

Methodology and data notes

• Separate rankings. Each ranking is shown as published by its original producer and dated by edition. No scores have been combined, averaged or rescaled. The only cross index figure is a count of how many top 10 lists each city appears in, calculated by BusinessStats.
• Latest editions. ECA International: ranking released 7 September 2026. Julius Baer: Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report 2026, released July 2026, data collection ended late February 2026. Mercer: Cost of Living City Ranking 2024, prices of March 2024, the edition still shown on the Mercer ranking page in November 2026. EIU: Worldwide Cost of Living 2023, published 30 November 2023, the latest edition with a public city ranking we could verify at the publisher. Demographia: International Housing Affordability 2026 edition, data for the third quarter of 2025. ONS: Housing affordability in England and Wales 2025, released 26 March 2026 and corrected on 13 May 2026.
• Scores and ranks. The EIU publishes index values (New York = 100). ECA, Mercer and Julius Baer publish ranks only in their public releases, so their charts show rank changes rather than scores.
• Changes. Rank changes for ECA and Mercer are as published. Julius Baer rank changes are BusinessStats calculations from the 2025 and 2026 ranks in the report.
• What is left out. Crowd sourced price databases and rankings that do not publish a method or an edition date are not used. Cities are named as their publishers name them; Jerusalem is listed as it appears in the ECA table.
• Housing. Demographia covers 96 markets in eight countries only, so cities such as Zurich, Geneva, Paris, Tokyo and Dubai have no comparable figure. Singapore is measured on HDB resale flats.

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