Worldwide Cost of Living 2019

Worldwide Cost of Living 2019

For the first time three cities share the title of the world's most expensive city – Singapore, Hong Kong and Paris. This year's top ten is largely split between Asia and Europe, with Singapore representing the only city that has maintained its ranking from the previous year. Download the free report to see where your city ranks.

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Worldwide Cost of Living 2019 - The findings of the latest Worldwide Cost of
Living Survey

Cost convergence across continents

For the first time in the survey’s history, three cities share the title of the world’s most expensive
city: Singapore, Hong Kong and France’s capital, Paris. The top ten is largely split between Asia and Europe, with Singapore representing the only city in the top ten that has maintained its ranking from the previous year. In the rest of Asia, Osaka in Japan and Seoul in South Korea join Singapore and
Hong Kong in the top ten. The Japanese city has moved up six places since last year, and now shares fifth place with Geneva in Switzerland. In Europe, the usual suspects—Geneva and Zurich, both in Switzerland, as well as Copenhagen in Denmark—join Paris as the world’s most expensive cities to visit and live in out of the 133 cities surveyed.
Within western Europe it is non-euro area cities that largely remain the most expensive. Zurich (in fourth place), Geneva (joint fifth) and Copenhagen (joint seventh) are among the ten priciest. The lone
exception is Paris (joint first), which has featured among the top ten most expensive cities since 2003.
With west European cities returning to the fold, the region now accounts for three of the five most
expensive cities and for four of the top ten. Asia accounts for a further four cities, while Tel Aviv is the sole Middle Eastern representative.
Across geographic regions and countries, the survey observed a degree of convergence in 2018 among the most expensive locations. Some of those economies with appreciating currencies, like the
US, climbed up the ranking significantly. In seventh and joint tenth place respectively, New York and Los Angeles are the only cities in the top 10 from North America. A stronger US dollar last year has meant
that cities in the US generally became more expensive globally, especially relative to last year’s ranking.
New York has moved up six places in the ranking this year, while Los Angeles has moved up four spots.
These movements represent a sharp increase in the relative cost of living compared with five years ago,
when New York and Los Angeles tied in 39th position.
Tel Aviv, which was ranked 28th just five years ago, sits alongside Los Angeles as the joint tenth most expensive city in the survey. Currency appreciation played a part in this rise, but Tel Aviv also has some
specific costs that drive up prices, notably those of buying, insuring and maintaining a car, all of which push transport costs 64% above New York prices.
Last year inflation and devaluations were prominent factors in determining the cost of living, with many cities tumbling down the ranking owing to economic turmoil, currency weakness or falling local
prices. Places like Argentina, Brazil, Turkey and Venezuela experienced all of the aforementioned conditions, leading to cities in these countries seeing a sharp fall in their cost of living ranking.
Unsurprisingly, it is Caracas in Venezuela which claims the title of the least expensive city in the world.
Following inflation nearing 1,000,000% last year and the Venezuelan government launching a new
currency, the situation continues to change almost daily. The new currency value has varied so much
since its creation and the economy was demonetised compelling people to use commodities and
exchange services and personal items like clothing, auto parts and jewellery to purchase basic goods
such as groceries.

Worldwide Cost of Living

The Worldwide Cost of Living Survey compares more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services in cities around the world.

This data is used to produce our annual Worldwide Cost of Living Report which provides a ranking of the world’s major cities. Find out this year’s highlights by downloading a copy of the latest free summary report.

Worldwide Cost of Living 2019

Download the free report -Purchase the full report

For the first time three cities share the title of the world's most expensive city – Singapore, Hong Kong and Paris. In this year’s top 10, Singapore represents the only city that has maintained its ranking from the previous year.

For further results, and our analysis of this year’s rankings, please download the free summary report. Alternatively you can purchase the full report from The EIU store

Worldwide Cost of Living 2019 Rankings

WCOL index
City	Country	(New York=100)
1	Singapore	Singapore	107=
1	↑ 1	Paris	France	107=
1	↑ 3	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	107=
2	↓ 2	Zurich	Switzerland	106
3	↑ 1	Geneva	Switzerland	101

WCOL index
City	Country	(New York=100)
1	↓ 1	Caracas	Venezuela	15
2	↑ 1	Damascus	Syria	25
3	↓ 19	Tashkent	Uzbekistan	33
4	↑ 1	Almaty	Kazakhstan	35
5	Bangalore	India	39

New Worldwide Cost of Living 2019 report

The city-to-city solution for assessing living costs around the world