💰 Cost of Living in the Cities Worldwide - 2024 Ranking from Mercer

Hey there! Hope your summer's been a real scorcher - and I don't just mean your sunburn from falling asleep at the beach!

Just recently, Mercer LLC, an American consulting firm, has published their annual Cost of Living City Ranking report, for 2024. This ranking includes 226 cities in the world in order, from the most expensive to the least expensive places to live. Alright, let’s have a look!

IN THE ISSUE

• TL;DR

• Methodology

• What Influenced

• Considerations

• End Note

TL;DR

The 5 most expensive cities have kept the same positions in Mercer’s rankings that they had last year, those are Hong Kong, Singapore, Zurich, Geneva and Basel. Switzerland takes 4 places in the TOP-10, just behind 2 Asian cities - Hong Kong and Singapore. Yes, Singapore is damn expensive!

And that’s what looks like the first 10 positions.

Source: Mercer's 2024 Cost of Living Survey.

Overall, the expensive West gets more expensive, while the cheap East gets cheaper.

European cities are heavily concentrated at the top of the report. Other expensive cities in the region include Copenhagen (11th), Vienna (24th), Paris (29th), Amsterdam (30th) and Berlin (31st).

Interestingly, though, how US cities don’t seem to be the most expensive ones any more, but still keeping their places at the top of the ranking. On the other hand, most Asian cities dropped far below. Tokyo, Japan (49th) lost -30 positions because of the weak Yen. Shanghai, China (23rd) lost -10; Guangzhou (71st) -35; Bangkok, Thailand (124th) -24 as well.

On the other range of the spectrum, we have the cheapest cities in the world, starting with Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria at the end of the ranking. As before, the majority of the least costly cities are located in Africa and LatAm.

Source: Mercer's 2024 Cost of Living Survey.

Other interesting movements include Dubai, UAE at the 15th, which keeps steadily approaching the top range. Warsaw, Poland (135th) climbed a whopping 35 positions. Minsk, Belarus (212th) lost -30 positions.

A side note, I’d argue Warsaw is quite more expensive than Bangkok, relating to my recent experience.

Methodology

Mercer looked at 226 cities worldwide, comparing prices of over 200 everyday items - from housing and transportation to food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. They used New York City as the baseline city and currency movements were measured against the US dollar.

What Influenced

A bunch of key factors have been influencing the world's economy lately. In 2024, these are still making waves in the cost of living across major cities.

• Inflation and exchange-rate ups and downs are hitting the pay cheques and savings of international employees.

• Economic and political roller coasters, plus local conflicts and emergencies, have cranked up costs for things like housing, utilities, local taxes and education.

• For the priciest cities (think Hong Kong, Singapore and Zurich), it's a mix of expensive housing markets, pricey transportation, and costlier goods and services that's keeping living costs high.

• On the flip side, in places like Islamabad, Lagos and Abuja, international workers are finding lower living costs, partly thanks to their currencies losing value.

Housing costs are a big deal in the Cost of Living ranking. From 2023 to 2024, these costs went wild worldwide. Check this out:

• Istanbul's prices shot up by 301%;

• Tel Aviv dropped by 22%;

• Minsk fell by 10%;

• Ankara jumped 141%;

• Dubai climbed 21%;

• New Delhi and Miami both rose 13%.

Most top 10 pricey cities saw modest increases of 3-8%, except Nassau, which stayed put.

What's driving this? Often, it's just not enough houses for all the people who want them. This supply-demand mismatch is pushing up prices for international assignments. It's especially tough in booming areas or places short on buildable land. Toss in construction costs and land prices, and you've got a recipe for some eye-watering housing bills.

For some people working abroad, this means paying more for a roof over their heads than they did back home.

Considerations

In today's global scene, what makes a place attractive isn't just about costs any more. Sure, money still matters, but companies and employees are looking at the bigger picture. Quality of life, safety and solid infrastructure with good connections are becoming real deal-breakers.

With the world getting tenser and conflict zones popping up, keeping employees safe is now top of mind for organisations everywhere. Other issues are creeping in too - from natural disasters to shaky infrastructure and limited global connections. All this stuff can really sway decisions for companies and their workers.

Have a look at the chart above that shows how cost of living correlates with quality of life in select cities worldwide. It also gives you a peek at how each place ranks in terms of safety, eco-friendliness and infrastructure.

Some of the locations with the lowest cost of living and highest quality of living are Montreal, Warsaw, Budapest and Kuala Lumpur. Hong Kong has the highest cost of living but lower quality of living than many other locations. Zurich and Singapore obviously have both the highest quality of living and the highest cost of living.

End Note

Right. So what place does your city take in the ranking, and how has that impacted your living? Feel free to share your thoughts!

Until next time!

📍Warsaw, Poland

— Ilya

The included pictures are taken and text is written by Ilya Gruzhevski, if not stated otherwise, and subject to copyright. Copying and/or using without attribution to this website and author is not permitted.