Amid an unprecedented year with the world economy in the grips of COVID-19, one city experienced more rapid inflation that most others. In the Worldwide Cost of Living index 2021, the Israeli city of Tel Aviv shot up from fifth position last year to the top becoming the most expensive city in the world.
The Worldwide Cost of Living index has been kept by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for three decades. In 2020, the most expensive city in the world was Paris, followed by Singapore. Switzerland’s Zurich and the Hong Kong city complete the top five.
Ranking at the top for the first time, Tel Aviv’s rise is attributed by the EIU to the Israeli shekel’s strong positioning against the dollar and surge in transport and grocery prices in the city.
The city that saw the highest jump in the index was Iran’s capital Tehran which now stands at 29th most expensive city in the world, up 50 places from 70th in 2020.
The most expensive cities in the world
1 Tel Aviv, Israel
2 Paris, France
– Singapore
4 Zurich, Switzerland
5 Hong Kong
6 New York City, New York
7 Geneva, Switzerland
8 Copenhagen, Denmark
9 Los Angeles, California
10 Osaka, Japan
11 Oslo, Norway
12 Seoul, South Korea
13 Tokyo, Japan
14 Vienna, Austria
– Sydney, Australia
16 Melbourne, Australia
17 Helsinki, Finland
– London, UK
19 Dublin, Ireland
– Frankfurt, Germany
– Shanghai, China
Cheapest city in the world
Ridden by war as well as high inflation, Syria’s Damascus was the cheapest city in the world.
Study methodology
The study tracked the cost of living in 173 cities around the world where it monitored and compared the costs of over 200 products and services used in daily life. The EIU’s team around the world gathers the data from March to September.
EIU’s index is benchmarked against the cost of living the New York City, and thus the ranking is dependent on the strength of a city’s currency against the United States dollar.
