The world's most expensive cities

London is the most expensive city in the world due to the UK capital’s high cost of renting accommodation. If rents are excluded, Oslo, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Zurich are among the most costly cities in the world. In terms of living costs, Oslo remains the most expensive of the 71 cities surveyed, now followed by Copenhagen, Tokyo, Zurich and London. A basket of goods and services assembled in line with western European consumer habits (excluding rents) costs 15.5 per cent more in Oslo than it does in Zurich – over two-thirds more than the global average. If we include rents in the comparison, the differences from city to city are even more pronounced. The most expensive places to live in this respect are London, Oslo and New York. There have been some significant shifts in the top places since the 2003 edition: Copenhagen has gone from sixth to second-most expensive city, while Hong Kong has fallen from second spot and no longer ranks among the world’s most expensive cities. Our basket is still cheapest in Mumbai, Karachi, Buenos Aires and the eastern European cities of Kiev, Bucharest and Sofia. The cost in these cities is a third or less of the price in Zurich.

Rank	Cities	Index (incl rents)
1	London	122.4
2	Oslo	109.4
3	New York	105.0
4	Tokyo	104.6
5	Copenhagen	104.1
6	Hong Kong	100.6
7	Zurich	100.0
8	Paris	99.3
9	Chicago	99.1
10	Geneva	98.2
11	Dublin	97.5
12	Stockholm	95.2
13	Basel	92.8
14	Helsinki	91.8
15	Vienna	90.8
16	Lugano	90.3
17	Milan	89.5
18	Istanbul	89.4
19	Amsterdam	86.4
20	Rome	86.2
21	Nicosia	85.7
22	Frankfurt	82.6
23	Luxembourg	81.0
24	Brussels	80.9
25	Athens	79.1
26	Sydney	77.9
27	Seoul	77.7
28	Los Angeles	76.8
29	Taipei	76.6
30	Berlin	76.2
31	Lisbon	74.5
32	Toronto	74.3
33	Madrid	73.9
34	Auckland	71.7
35	Singapore	71.2
36	Barcelona	67.7
37	Montreal	66.7
38	Moscow	66.2
39	Tel Aviv	65.4
40	Miami	65.3
41	Budapest	65.3
42	Dubai	65.3
43	Ljubljana	64.6
44	Shanghai	63.5
45	Johannesburg	62.7
46	Caracas	60.8
47	Manama	58.2
48	Warsaw	55.5
49	Lagos	55.3
50	Jakarta	55.0
51	Mexico City	54.9
52	Tallinn	52.7
53	São Paulo	51.8
54	Bratislava	49.9
55	Vilnius	48.2
56	Nairobi	47.6
57	Rio de Janeiro	46.0
58	Santiago de Chile	45.8
59	Prague	45.2
60	Bangkok	41.9
61	Bogotá	38.8
62	Riga	37.7
63	Manila	37.5
64	Kuala Lumpur	36.5
65	Sofia	36.4
66	Lima	32.7
67	Kiev	32.7
68	Bucharest	32.2
69	Karachi	29.1
70	Buenos Aires	27.8
71	Mumbai	27.8