Mumbai: World’s costliest cities for expats in 2024 are Hong Kong, Singapore and Zurich, as per Mercer’s Cost of Living City rankings. The cities retained their positions from last year while Islamabad, Lagos and Abuja ranked lowest in terms of living costs. In India, Mumbai ranks the highest while being on the 136th place globally- up 11 spots from last year. This makes Mumbai the costliest city in India for expats while Delhi is at 165th position in the world- moving up four points.
Mumbai
Chennai slipped five points, and Bengaluru slipped six points to 189 and 195, respectively. Hyderabad is at 202; Pune is at 205 and Kolkata is at 207 in the list of the world’s most expensive cities for expats. The Mercer’s Cost of Living City Ranking 2024 list analysed 226 cities in the world to provide information on global mobility. The list assessed costs of over 200 items like housing, transport, food, clothing, and entertainment.
The base city for the survey was New York City and as per the survey multiple factors contributed to the increase in the cost of living like inflation, exchange rate variations, economic as well as geopolitical volatility and increasing conflicts.
For cities like Hong Kong, high cost of living is because of expensive housing, high transportation costs, and costly goods and services, the survey showed. Whereas currency depreciation resulted in lowering the cost of living in Islamabad, Lagos and Abuja, it said.
European cities largely feature in the top 10 most expensive cities to live in. London ranks 8th, Copenhagen (11), Vienna (24), Paris (29), and Amsterdam (30). Dubai is the costliest city in the Middle East for international employees at 15th rank while in South America, Uruguay is the most expensive place for international workers at 42nd rank. In North America, New York City tops the list at 7th rank.
Mumbai is India’s costliest city, Islamabad world’s cheapest
