Survey: Singapore, New York Top World’s Most Expensive City Ranking

Singapore and New York have jointly dethroned Tel Aviv as the world’s most expensive city to live in due to soaring inflation in 2022, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living (WCOL) index that London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released on Thursday, Dec. 1.

This is the first time for New York to hit the top spot, while it’s the eighth time for Singapore in a decade. The city-state ranked second with Paris in 2021.

“Global prices have risen by more than 8% on average in 2022, sparked by the war in Ukraine and ‘zero-covid’ restrictions in China,” the survey said. “Petrol has registered the largest price increase, with the cost of a litre up by 22% from 2021 in local-currency terms.”

Conducted between Aug. 16 and Sept. 16, the bi-annual survey compared more than 200 products and services in 172 cities. These include food, drinks, household supplies, personal care items, clothing, transportation fees, and rent.

Followed by Singapore, New York, and Tel Aviv, the world’s most expensive cities to live in are Hong Kong and Los Angeles (tied at fourth place), Zurich, Geneva, San Francisco, Paris, and Copenhagen.

The least expensive cities, on the other hand, went to Tehran (170th place), Tripoli (171st place), and Damascus (172nd place).