World's Most Expensive Cities to Live In 2025

Eight cities ranked by cost of living index for 2025. Hong Kong takes the top position on 131, with Singapore just behind on 129 and Zurich on 127. Paris closes the list on 110.

The first thing to understand is what the number means. This is an index, not a price: it compares the cost of a comparable basket of goods, services and housing between cities, so a score of 131 against 110 says that the same basket costs about 19 percent more in Hong Kong than in Paris. It cannot be read as a salary requirement or converted into a currency.

The eight cities here are separated by 21 index points from top to bottom, and the field is tighter than the reputations of these cities might suggest. The gap between first and second is 2 points; the gap between second and last is 19. Switzerland places two cities in the top four — Zurich on 127 and Geneva on 124 — which is the only country to appear twice in the ranking. Asia contributes three entries: Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, the last of which sits seventh on 112, below London.

Cost-of-living indices are sensitive to two things that move quickly: exchange rates and rents. A city can climb or fall several places without anything changing locally, simply because its currency strengthened against the survey's base currency during the measurement window. A city can therefore fall several places without a single local price changing, which is why these rankings should be read as a snapshot of one year rather than a durable ordering of the world's expensive cities.