List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees

These are lists of the world's most expensive cities for expatriate employees (not residents), according to the Mercer, ECA International and Xpatulator.com cost-of-living surveys. Other surveys from online collaborative indices, such as Numbeo, Expatistan, or EardexEardex . Retrieved January 25, 2013. are not covered by this article.

Various factors enter into a city's cost-of-living for expatriate employees, such as monetary value, consumer confidence, investment, interest rates, exchange rates of the country's currency, and housing costs. This list does not account for cost-of-living savings accrued to local citizens through government-subsidized housing, health care, education, differences in taxation, and many other factors irrelevant to expatriates. Cost of living may be much higher for expatriates than for local residents in a developing country, especially if expatriates expect a standard of living similar to a developed country.

Mercer

Mercer's Cost of Living surveys are taken in March of each year. The survey covers 207 cities around the world and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. It 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 other cities are compared against it. The cost of housing plays an important part in determining where cities are ranked.

Two main factors determine a city's ranking in Mercer's survey – the relative strength of the relevant currency against the US dollar over the prior 12 months and price movements over the prior 12 months compared to those in New York City as the base.

+Top ten locations surveyed (2024)RankCityCountry or Region1 Hong Kong 2 Singapore 3 Zürich 4 Geneva5 Basel6 Bern7 New York 8 London 9 Nassau 10 Los Angeles

+Top ten locations surveyed (2023)RankCityCountry or Region1 Hong Kong 2 Singapore 3 Zürich 4 Geneva5 Basel 6 New York 7 Bern 8 Tel Aviv 9 Copenhagen 10 Nassau

+Top ten locations surveyed (2022)RankCityCountry or Region1 Hong Kong 2 Zürich 3 Geneva4 Basel5 Bern 6 Tel Aviv 7 New York 8 Singapore 9 Tokyo 10 Beijing

+Top ten locations surveyed (2021)RankCityCountry or Region1 Ashgabat 2 Hong Kong 3 Beirut 4 Tokyo 5 Zürich 6 Shanghai 7 Singapore 8 Geneva 9 Beijing 10 Bern

+Top ten locations surveyed (2020)RankCityCountry of Region1 Hong Kong 2 Ashgabat 3 Tokyo 4 Zürich 5 Singapore 6 New York 7 Shanghai 8 Bern 9 Geneva10 Beijing

+Top ten locations surveyed (2019)RankCityCountry or Region1 Hong Kong 2 Tokyo 3 Singapore 4 Seoul 5 Zürich 6 Shanghai 7 Ashgabat 8 Beijing 9 New York 10 Shenzhen

+Top ten locations surveyed (2018)RankCityCountry or Region1 Hong Kong 2 Tokyo 3 Zürich 4 Singapore 5 Seoul 6 Luanda 7 Shanghai 8 N'Djamena 9 Beijing 10 Bern

+Top ten locations surveyed (2017)RankCityCountry or Region1 Luanda 2 Hong Kong 3 Tokyo 4 Zürich 5 Singapore 6 Seoul 7 Geneva 8 Shanghai 9 New York 10 Bern

+Top ten locations surveyed (2016)RankCityCountry or Region1 Hong Kong 2 Luanda 3 Zürich 4 Singapore 5 Tokyo 6 Kinshasa 7 Shanghai 8 Geneva 9 N'Djamena 10 Beijing

+Top ten locations surveyed (2015)RankCityCountry or Region1 Luanda 2 Hong Kong 3 Zürich 4 Singapore 5 Geneva 6 Shanghai 7 Beijing8 Seoul 9 Bern 10 N'Djamena

ECA International

Every March and September, ECA International calculates the cost of living for expatriates in almost 400 cities around the world. The survey does not include certain living costs such as accommodation, utilities (electricity, gas, water costs), car purchase and school fees. These are usually compensated for separately in expatriate packages from cost of living allowances.

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2023)RankingCityCountry or Region 1 New York 2 Hong Kong 3 Geneva 4 London 5 Singapore 6 Zürich 7 San Francisco 8 Tel Aviv 9 Seoul 10 Tokyo

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2022)RankingCityCountry or Region 1 Hong Kong 2 New York 3 Geneva 4 London 5 Tokyo 6 Tel Aviv 7 Zürich 8 Shanghai 9 Guangzhou 10 Seoul

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2021)RankingCityCountry or Region 1 Hong Kong 2 Tokyo 3 Geneva 4 New York 5 London 6 Zürich 7 Tel Aviv 8 Seoul 9 Shanghai 10 Guangzhou

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2020)RankingCityCountry or Region 1 Ashgabat 2 Zürich 3 Geneva 4 Basel 5 Bern 6 Hong Kong 7 Tokyo 8 Tel Aviv 9 Jerusalem 10 Yokohama

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2019)RankingCityCountry or Region 1 Ashgabat 2 Zürich 3 Geneva 4 Hong Kong 5 Basel 6 Bern 7 Tokyo 8 Seoul 9 Tel Aviv 10 Shanghai

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2018)RankingCityCountry or Region 1 Ashgabat 2 Geneva 3 Zürich 4 Basel 5 Bern 6 Hong Kong 7 Seoul 8 Tokyo 9 Oslo 10 Stavanger

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2017)RankingCityCountry or Region 1 Luanda 2 Hong Kong 3 Zürich 4 Geneva 5 Basel 6 Bern 7 Tokyo 8 Seoul 9 Caracas 10 Khartoum

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2016)RankingCityCountry or Region 1 Kinshasa 2 Zürich 3 Geneva 4 Basel 5 Bern 6 Freetown 7 Tokyo 8 Luanda 9 Hong Kong 10 Shanghai

+Top 20 cities surveyed (2015)RankingCityCountry 1 Juba 2 Luanda 3 Zürich 4 Geneva 5 Bern 6 Basel 7 Kinshasa 8 Shanghai 9 Beijing 10 Seoul

See also Global city List of cities by GDP Megacity Most livable cities

References