The costliest cities in the world
The world’s top most expensive cities to live in, calculated by the respected company Mercur continues to bring some unexpected and expected results.
Whilst those cities you would expect to rank in the top five, or maybe top ten positions are actually quite far down the list.
The world’s most expensive city to live continues to be Luanda, in Angola, Africa. It is the capital city of Angola, an important administrative region of South Africa, as well as being an important sea port.
The city is currently undergoing some major reconstruction work. Interestingly, Angola is the top producer of oil in Africa.
Moscow and Tokyo come in at the second and third most costliest cities in the world to live in, which of course makes them also the most expensive in Europe and Asia. In the United States it is New York that is the most expensive. New York climbed in ranking this year, due to a higher demand for rental accommodation across the city.
The top ten costliest cities in the world have been ranked as:
1. Luanda
2. Moscow
3. Tokyo
4. N’Djamena
5. Singapore
5. Hong Kong
6. Geneva
7. Zurich
8. Berne
9. Sydney
It is those cities that have high inflation that seem to be ranked in the top ten, with those with lower inflation follow. The list does seem to have stayed relatively stable since the last list in 2011.
Four European countries remain in the top ten, with all of them situated in Switzerland. This is despite a decrease in housing and accommodation costs in Switzerland, although the robust Swiss Franc remains.
It is South America that is the most expensive to live in the Americas. We have seen that several countries have seen their currencies weaken against the US dollar. Others have climbed the ladder, with high inflation.
The top most expensive cities to live is calculated using New York City as a baseline. The cost of housing, food, general living expenses and the strength of the currency is then compared to every world wide city. This allows an accurate, detailed calculation to be made.
