Where a coffee costs ten dollars
10 Most Expensive Cities in the World
Annual surveys from EIU, Mercer and Numbeo disagree on the order, but the same handful of cities trade the top spots year after year.
The world's most expensive cities aren't always the richest — they're the ones where a combination of strong currency, scarce land and high taxes makes basic goods cost two or three times the global average.
How we chose these ↓ — jump to the full scoring system at the bottom of the article.
Oslo, Norway · pop. 1,110,887
Oslo's prices are the stuff of Nordic legend: a pint of beer often clears NOK 110 (around €10), and the harborkrog tradition of buying duty-free spirits from the Tax-Free shop on arrival is a survival strategy for residents. Norwegians regularly cross-shop in Sweden for groceries.
The high prices are a direct result of high wages and a small, sheltered domestic market. Norway's oil wealth and large sovereign-wealth fund underwrite very high living standards but also very high underlying costs.
Capital Region, Denmark · pop. 613,288
High wages, high taxes (the top marginal income tax rate is around 56%) and a small market keep almost everything in Copenhagen 30–50% more expensive than the EU average. Restaurant prices in particular are eye-watering, with a casual dinner for two easily clearing DKK 1,000.
The Danish krone's peg to the euro means there is no exchange-rate cushion for foreign visitors. Free healthcare and education are the offsetting public benefit that locals routinely cite when asked.
Tokyo, Japan · pop. 13,613,660
Tokyo used to top these lists outright in the 1990s when the yen was at peak strength; today it is still expensive in absolute terms but a sustained weak-yen period has pulled it down the rankings. The Big Mac Index now puts Tokyo well below most European capitals.
Property prices in central wards (Minato, Chiyoda, Shibuya) remain high, but stable rents and very low food prices in casual restaurants offset the headline cost-of-living number. The city's affordability is one reason it tops our best food cities ranking.
England, United Kingdom · pop. 8,908,083
London is Europe's most expensive English-speaking city and one of the world's most expensive for expat compensation packages, per Mercer. Even after Brexit and the sterling's currency moves, the city stays firmly in the global top ten on rent, transport and groceries.
The Greater London housing market remains one of the world's most internationalised, with substantial foreign-buyer activity in prime central areas. Transport for London's fare structure is also among the most expensive metro fares anywhere by absolute price.
Île-de-France, France · pop. 2,133,111
Paris is consistently the most expensive city in continental Europe outside Switzerland. Food prices, particularly in the 1st through 8th arrondissements, have widened the gap with peer European capitals since the pandemic, and rents in central Paris average roughly €40/m² per month.
The city also tops most global tourism rankings (see most-visited tourist cities) and our best food cities list, both of which contribute to its premium pricing.
Hong Kong, China · pop. 7,534,200
Hong Kong's residential property prices remain the highest per square foot of any major city on Earth, according to the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability survey, and have been for over a decade despite recent population shifts to Singapore and Vancouver.
A roughly 40 m² apartment in a 'subdivided flat' configuration can rent for over HK$10,000 a month. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority's currency-board peg to the US dollar means Hong Kong prices effectively follow US interest rates without local monetary control.
New York, United States · pop. 8,478,072
New York is the most expensive large city in the Americas. Manhattan one-bedroom rents now average over $4,500 a month, and groceries, healthcare and childcare prices push it onto every global top-ten list even though the dollar has been strong.
The city anchors the EIU index along with Singapore most years. It is also the world's leading billionaire city (see cities with the most billionaires) and one of the most-visited (see most-visited tourist cities).
Geneva, Switzerland · pop. 191,557
Geneva tracks Zurich on cost and adds an extra layer of UN-and-banking demand for limited housing stock, keeping rents permanently squeezed. The presence of the UN's European headquarters, the WHO, WIPO and roughly 40 other international organisations pulls in a high-income, low-supply housing market.
Local vacancy rates routinely sit below 0.5%, and the canton's housing register effectively functions as a queueing system. Many expats end up commuting in from cheaper French-side towns like Annemasse or Ferney-Voltaire.
Zurich, Switzerland · pop. 443,037
Zurich pairs Swiss wages with Swiss prices: a sit-down lunch can easily clear 30 CHF, and a Big Mac in Zurich is the most expensive in the world by The Economist's Big Mac Index. Rents in the city centre routinely exceed CHF 4,000 a month for a small apartment.
The Swiss franc's strength against the euro and dollar makes the apparent gap even larger for foreigners, even though local incomes generally absorb the difference. The Mercer Cost of Living survey consistently ranks Zurich among the world's three most expensive cities for expat assignments.
Singapore, Singapore · pop. 5,535,002
Singapore has topped the EIU's Worldwide Cost of Living index more often than any other city in the past decade, driven largely by the world's most expensive car-ownership system. A Certificate of Entitlement to register a new car routinely costs over S$100,000 before the car itself, deliberately engineered to limit private vehicle ownership on a 730 km² island.
Housing, healthcare and groceries are also expensive in absolute terms, though heavily subsidised for Singaporean citizens via the HDB public-housing system that houses roughly 80% of residents. Expats and foreigners bear the full sticker price.
How we chose these
We synthesised the three most-cited annual cost-of-living surveys: the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Worldwide Cost of Living, the Mercer Cost of Living Survey, and Numbeo's crowdsourced index. The surveys disagree on order in any given year because they weight different baskets of goods (Mercer is built for expat assignments and weights housing heavily; EIU uses a fixed basket of 200 products and services; Numbeo aggregates user-submitted prices). Cities that appear in the top tier of all three are the ones included here.
Sources & further reading
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For entertainment only. Rankings on this page are editorial picks compiled from public sources for fun and discovery — they aren't a scientific measurement. Population figures and place details come from open data; see the linked place pages for sources.