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Visualized: The Most (and Least) Expensive Cities to Live In

by Freny Fernandes
This post is by Freny Fernandes from Visual Capitalist

Infographic showing the Most and Least Expensive Cities in the world

Visualizing The Most (and Least) Expensive Cities to Live In

There are many benefits to living in an iconic city like New York or Singapore, but the amenities and exclusivity can come at a high cost.

Cities become “expensive” due to a variety of factors such as high demand for housing, a concentration of high-paying businesses and industries, and a high standard of living. Additionally, factors such as taxes, transportation costs, and availability of goods and services can also contribute to the overall cost of living in global cities.

The infographic above uses data from EIU to rank the world most and least expensive cities to live in. To make the list, the EIU examines 400+ prices for over 200 products and services in 172 cities, surveying a variety of businesses to track price fluctuations over the last year.

Inflation + Strong Currency = Expensive Cities

If you live in a city where many residents find it challenging to put a roof over their heads, food on their plates, and make ends meet, you live in an expensive city.

But if this inflation is compounded with a strong national currency, you may live in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

Rank CityCountryIndex Score
#1Singapore🇸🇬 Singapore100
#1New York 🇺🇸 U.S.100
#3Tel Aviv🇮🇱 Israel99
#4Hong Kong🇭🇰 Hong Kong98
#4Los Angeles🇺🇸 U.S.98
#6Zurich🇨🇭 Switzerland94
#7Geneva🇨🇭 Switzerland91
#8San Francisco🇺🇸 U.S.85
#9Paris🇫🇷 France84
#10 (Read more...)

Comparing the Cost of Living Around the World

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

Comparing The Cost of Living Around the World

The amount of money that’s needed to pay for day-to-day expenses like housing and food varies greatly from city to city. And some cities, like New York City, are known as especially expensive places to live.

So how do everyday expenses in New York City truly compare in costs to places like Beirut, Lebanon, or Bangalore, India?

This graphic by Victor Dépré (hypntic.data) uses 2022 data from Numbeo to compare the cost of living and purchasing power in 578 different cities around the world, using New York City as a benchmark for comparison.

The Cost of Living Index

Though New York City is widely recognized as one of the most expensive cities in the world, according to Numbeo—the world’s largest database of user-contributed data on cities and countries—there are a number of cities that are actually more expensive than the Big Apple.

Here’s a look at the comparative cost of living in 578 cities. For context, if a city has a cost of living index of 121, that means day-to-day expenses in it are 21% higher than New York’s, on average:

CityCountryCost of Living Index
HamiltonBermuda149.0
ZurichSwitzerland131.2
BaselSwitzerland130.9
ZugSwitzerland128.1
LuganoSwitzerland124.0
LausanneSwitzerland122.0
BeirutLebanon120.5
BernSwitzerland118.2
GenevaSwitzerland114.1
StavangerNorway104.6
Honolulu, HIUnited States103.7
OsloNorway102.3
BergenNorway100.4
New York, NYUnited States100.0
TrondheimNorway99.4
TromsoNorway (Read more...)