World’s Most Expensive Cities

Which cities have the most expensive cost of living?

Mercer Human Resources Consulting, a world-wide firm with offices in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia has sufficient respect that its evaluations are reported in major newspapers and magazines.  The company has developed a Worldwide Cost of Living survey.  The results were reported in the Toronto Star today.  The entire listing is not posted to the web but can be purchased for $600USD.

Following is an abridged summary that was posted on the Mercer web site.

• Luandain, Angola is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates; Karachi is the cheapest

• Top 10 ranked cities are dominated by Africa, Europe and Asia

• London drops 1 place to rank 18; Singapore and São Paolo join the top 10 list

• New York is the most expensive in the United States followed by Los Angeles.

• Los Angeles, the second most expensive U.S. city, fell 22 places to 77th place.

The survey covers 214 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.New York is used as the base city and all cities are compared against New York. Currency movements are measured against the US dollar. The cost of housing – often the biggest expense for expatriates – plays an important part in determining where cities are ranked.

New entries in the top 10 list of the costliest cities in the world are Singapore(8), up from 11, and São Paolo (10), which has jumped 11 places since the 2010 ranking.Karachi(214) is ranked as the world’s least expensive city, and the survey found that Luanda, in top place, is more than three times as costly as Karachi. Recent world events, including natural disasters and political upheavals, have impacted the rankings for many regions through currency fluctuations, cost inflation for goods and services and volatility in accommodation prices.

Down one place from last year, London(18) is the UK’s most expensive city, followed by Aberdeen(144), Glasgow(148) and Birmingham(150), Belfast(178) is ranked as the UK’s least expensive city.

The survey covers 214 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees. New Yorkis used as the base city and all cities are compared against New York. Currency movements are measured against the US dollar. The cost of housing – often the biggest expense for expatriates – plays an important part in determining where cities are ranked.

At rank 32, New York is the most expensive city in the United States.Los Angeles(77) and Chicago(108) have dropped significantly in the rankings (22 and 17 places respectively) as price increases on goods and services have been moderate compared to New York. Washington, however, also at ranking 108, has climbed three places, as rental accommodation prices have increased significantly.

Portland(186) and Winston-Salem(197) are the least expensive cities in the United States. Up 17 places, Toronto(59) has overtaken Vancouver(65) to become the most expensive Canadian city in the ranking, followed by Montreal(79) and Calgary(96). Ranking 114, Ottawa is the least expensive city in Canada.

Rankings

March 2011	March 2010	City	Country
1	1	LUANDA	ANGOLA
2	2	TOKYO	JAPAN
3	3	N’DJAMENA	CHAD
4	4	MOSCOW	RUSSIA
5	5	GENEVA	SWITZERLAND
6	6	OSAKA	JAPAN
7	8	ZURICH	SWITZERLAND
8	11	SINGAPORE	SINGAPORE
9	8	HONG KONG	HONG KONG
10	21	SÂO PAULO	BRAZIL
11	19	NAGOYA	JAPAN
12	7	LIBREVILLE	GABON
12	29	RIO DE JANEIRO	BRAZIL
14	24	SYDNEY	AUSTRALIA
15	11	OSLO	NORWAY
16	22	BERN	SWITZERLAND
17	10	COPENHAGEN	DENMARK
18	17	LONDON	UNITED KINGDOM
19	14	SEOUL	SOUTH KOREA
20	16	BEIJING	CHINA
21	25	SHANGHAI	CHINA
21	33	MELBOURNE	AUSTRALIA
23	23	NIAMEY	NIGER
24	19	TEL AVIV	ISRAEL
25	13	VICTORIA	SEYCHELLES
25	15	MILAN	ITALY
27	17	PARIS	FRANCE
28	67	OUAGADOUGOU	BURKINA FASO
29	30	ST. PETERSBURG	RUSSIA
30	60	PERTH	AUSTRALIA
31	55	BRISBANE	AUSTRALIA
32	27	NEW YORK CITY,NY	UNITED STATES
33	70	BRASILIA	BRAZIL
34	26	ROME	ITALY
34	74	CANBERRA	AUSTRALIA
36	28	VIENNA	AUSTRIA
37	38	NOUMÉA	NEW CALEDONIA
38	38	GUANGZHOU	CHINA
39	62	DJIBOUTI	DJIBOUTI
39	76	STOCKHOLM	SWEDEN
41	62	LAGOS	NIGERIA
42	31	HELSINKI	FINLAND
43	42	SHENZHEN	CHINA
44	32	DAKAR	SENEGAL
44	141	KHARTOUM	SUDAN
46	90	ADELAIDE	AUSTRALIA
47	47	PRAGUE	CZECH REPUBLIC
48	36	BAKU	AZERBAIJAN
49	33	BANGUI	CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
50	35	AMSTERDAM	NETHERLANDS