For the fifth year in a row, Singapore is the most expensive city in the world according to the “Worldwide Cost of Living 2018” study recently published by The Economist Intelligence Unit. Taking the cost of living in New York City (100) as a reference, Singapore’s index is 116 points.
The second-ranked city is the capital of France, Paris (112), while Zurich (112) ranks third.
Five Western European cities are among the ten most expensive in the world. In addition to Paris and Zurich, Oslo (Norway), Geneva (Switzerland) and Copenhagen (Denmark) also rank in the top ten.
Fourth place goes to Hong Kong, while another Asian city, Seoul (South Korea) is the seventh most expensive in the world this year.
Ninth place goes to Tel Aviv (Israel), while Sydney (Australia) comes in tenth.
The most significant changes in recent years include Tokyo (Japan), which was the most expensive city in the world in 2013 but now is not even among the top ten thanks to the low inflation in the Japanese economy. In contrast, the capital of South Korea, Seoul, was ranked 21st five years ago but is now the sixth most expensive city.
Just like other cities in the United States, New York City has fallen several spots in the ranking, primarily due to the weakness of the dollar. It is now ranked 13th, after falling four spots, although it is still far above where it was five years ago, when it was ranked the 27th most expensive city in the world.
To make this study, The Economist Intelligence Unit compares more than 400 individual prices of 160 different products and services, including the prices of food and beverages, clothing, housing, transport and schools.
Statista has also analysed these data and prepared a graph with the ten cities that have risen the most in the ranking this year compared to the previous year. One of these cities is Madrid, which is the 34th most expensive city in the world (with an index of 85 points), after rising ten spots in the ranking.
More graphs at Statista
