The Most Expensive City in the World for Expats

The answer depends on who you listen to.

After several years with Moscow at the top spot, Tokyo is once again the most expensive city for expats according to the Mercer Annual Cost of Living Survey. And while Asian and European cities comprise most of the Top 10, London has dropped to 16^th and New York moves into the Top 10. The least expensive city for expats is Johannesburg. With the economic downturn, the gap between the most expensive and least expensive cities is widening.

This Mercer Cost of Living Survey rates 143 cities. The measures compare costs of over 200 items including food, clothing, transport, and household goods. Considered a very comprehensive survey it is used by many companies and governments to determine compensation and allowances for their expat employees.

However, although the Mercer list is widely used, there are other companies with different results. The Numbeo.com Cost of Living Survey compares 30 goods and services in 382 cities. According to Numbeo.com the most expensive cities are Stavanger and Oslo in Norway with the least expensive cities listed as Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai in India.

Numbeo.com also compares countries. The most expensive countries are Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Italy and Finland. The least expensive countries are India, Ukraine, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Bolivia, Indonesia, China, Belarus, Ecuador and Romania.

UBS provides yet another point of view with its Prices and Earnings Survey: Oslo, Zurich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo are the most expensive, while Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Delhi, Mumbai are the least expensive.

The statistics for this survey are collected from 73 cities, with more than 30,000 data points included in the analysis. Living costs were calculated based on a survey of 154 items in total, including a basket of goods, rent, and transport.

What seems clear from looking at these three surveys is that nothing has really changed: cities in Asia and the northern half of the Northern Hemisphere are generally most expensive. As the actual cost of goods and services fluctuates year to year, a routine glance at several sites will help an expat when planning negotiations for salary packages or assist the future expat in making a decision about where they would like to emigrate.