Singapore is, for the fifth consecutive year, the most expensive city in the world according to the study "Worldwide Cost of Living 2018" recently published by The Economist Intelligence Unit. Taking the cost of living in New York City (100) as a reference, Singapore has an index of 116 points.
The second city in the ranking is the capital of France, Paris (112), while the third place is occupied by the Swiss city of Zurich (112).
Five Western European cities are among the ten most expensive in the world. In addition to the aforementioned Paris and Zurich, Oslo (Norway), Geneva (Switzerland) and Copenhagen (Denmark) are also in the top positions of the ranking.
The fourth place goes to Hong Kong, while another Asian city, Seoul (South Korea) is the seventh most expensive in the world this year.
The ninth position is for Tel Aviv (Israel), while Sydney (Australia) appears in the tenth.
Among the most significant changes in recent years is that of Tokyo (Japan), which became the most expensive city in the world in 2013, but now no longer appears even among the top ten thanks to the low inflation of the Japanese economy. In contrast, the capital of South Korea, Seoul, was number 21 five years ago, and is now the sixth most expensive.
The city of New York, as has happened with other cities in the United States, has fallen several places in this year's ranking due in large part to the weakness of the dollar. Now, it occupies the 13th position after falling four places, although it is still much higher than five years ago, when it was the 27th city in the ranking of the most expensive cities in the world.
To prepare this study, The Economist Intelligence Unit compares more than 400 individual prices of 160 different products and services. These include prices of food and drink, clothing, housing, transport, schools and others.
Statista has also analyzed this data and has prepared a graphic with the ten cities that have gained the most positions in this year's ranking compared to the previous year. One of these cities is Madrid, which occupies the 34th position among the most expensive cities in the world (with an index of 85 points) after having risen ten places in the classification.
More infographics at Statista