Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2017

Singapore is the world’s most expensive city for the fifth straight year in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Worldwide Cost of Living report, with Paris and Zurich tied for second place. Asia Pacific and European destinations dominated the ranks of costliest cities identified in the report released this week. Tokyo and Osaka were conspicuous in their absence from the top 10, edged out by low inflation.

While personal experience and anecdotal data might influence how such lists are received, the EIU’s methodology involved collecting over 50,000 prices from a range of stores covering more than 160 items in each city. The prices were then converted to U.S. dollars and then weighted using an international base to achieve comparative indexes, before being ranked using New York as the base city.