The Most Expensive Cities in the World

For what is worth, this is what I could fid about the methodology:<p><a href="http://eiu.enumerate.com/asp/wcol_HelpIndexCalc.asp" rel="nofollow">http://eiu.enumerate.com/asp/wcol_HelpIndexCalc.asp</a><p>Basically, it says it's only useful to companies to decide what to pay their expat executives.<p>For the rest of us it's pretty much irrelevant. Normal people will change their consumption patterns according to their income and the local living cost. If you move from Rio to NY and then to Tokyo you'll probably settle for a smaller apartment each time.<p>But the index seems implausible even for its stated purpose. Let's say you're a "regular" person and are happy with x in NY; then you'll be very comfortable with 1.4x in Tokyo, and will live like a king in Rio with .85x. So what kind of stuff are execs consuming that makes those numbers equivalent?

Where is the complete list?<p>And it's very surprising that shanghai would be nearly as expensive as new york, a city that is already considered fairly expensive.

The best mix of price and quality of life I've found is Taipei, Taiwan. You can live very cheaply - cheap rent, the street food and convenience store food is remarkably good, cheap transit, lots of cheap access to technology, nature, art in the city and surroundings.<p>I was really blown away with the quality/price mix. I figure the government must be artificially keeping the Taiwan dollar down - I literally couldn't figure out any other explanation for why it'd be so cheap. The place is absolutely wonderful and I think has something to offer most people. I like Japan a lot, but Taiwan has 90% of the quality of the life, cleanliness, and conveniences at less than half the price. Worth checking out for anyone in the area, it's a city I could live in.<p>They're also pretty liberal about giving living/working permits, long term touring visas if you can prove you have funds, or letting you visa run as much as you want. Only downside is that visa waiver is only 30 days, but there's short hops to lots of interesting places nearby if you want another 30 days. Taiwanese people are generally pretty welcoming and it's easy to make friends there, too - highly recommended.

Mumbai is at the bottom of the list and Shanghai much above it. What a dramatic contrast for the economic hubs of two leading economies of the world.

Tokyo is up to number 2? No wonder I'm constantly poor.<p>Been thinking about this lately though, it looks like Tokyo is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other city. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_Global_500#2009_breakdown_by_city" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_Global_500#2009_breakdo...</a><p>So it might be the best place for a B2B start-up.

Frankfurt?<p>Why is Frankfurt ranked so high? It's not a capital city, and in general Germany is relatively cheap for Europe.

Anecdotally this seems true to me—when moving to London 4 years ago I was taken aback by the cost, but recent visits to my hometown of Sydney has also surprised me at how much it's "caught up" with London.<p>Bit surprised Moscow is lower than London—it cost the earth when I was there a couple of years ago.

While low expenses are a good thing, I've learned the hard way I'd much rather pay higher rent to live somewhere I am happy, than to halve my expenses and live somewhere not as nice.<p>On the other hand, I think I'd appreciate almost any of the cities on this list.

I wonder what caused the move from 8th to 17th by London, and likewise 17th to 12th in Sydney?

The fluctuation of the dollar has no impact if your entire income and expenditures are all in a different currency. But as others here mention, this kind of chart is mostly for "expats" living in a bubble.

Is it just me, but every city at and below the 100 mark are world renowned for their criminal histories, and all the cities above it are not.

Yet another reason to not start a startup in Paris.

Chicago is as expensive as New York? Really?