The 2008/2009 Global cost of living by country
Every year Mercer releases Worldwide Ranking country ranking based on the cost of living. The 2008 top 50 countries are listed below with a comparison to their 2007 ranking. Rankings City Country COL Index March 2008 March 2007 March 2008 March 2007 1 1 Moscow Russia 142.4 134.4 2 4 Tokyo Japan 127.0 122.1 3 2 London UK 125.0 126.3 4 10 Oslo Norway 118.3 105.8 5 3 Seoul South Korea 117.7 122.4 6 5 Hong Kong China 117.6 119.4 7 6 Copenhagen Denmark 117.2 110.2 8 7 Geneva Switzerland 115.8 109.8 9 9 Zurich Switzerland 112.7 107.6 10 11 Milan Italy 111.3 104.4 11 8 Osaka Japan 110.0 108.4 12 13 Paris France 109.4 101.4 13 14 Singapore Singapore 109.1 100.4 14 17 Tel Aviv Israel 105.0 97.7 15 21 Sydney Australia 104.1 94.9 16 16 Dublin Ireland 103.9 99.6 16 18 Rome Italy 103.9 97.6 18 12 St. Petersburg Russia 103.1 103.0 19 19 Vienna Austria 102.3 96.9 20 20 Beijing China 101.9 95.9 21 22 Helsinki Finland 101.1 93.3 22 15 New York City US 100.0 100.0 23 38 Istanbul Turkey 99.4 87.7 24 26 Shanghai China 98.3 92.1 25 25 Amsterdam Netherlands 97.0 92.2 25 29 Athens Greece 97.0 90.6 25 62 São Paulo Brazil 97.0 82.8 28 26 Madrid Spain 96.7 92.1 29 49 Prague Czech Rep. 96.0 85.6 30 37 Lagos Nigeria 95.9 88.0 31 31 Barcelona Spain 95.2 89.2 31 64 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 95.2 82.5 31 23 Stockholm Sweden 95.2 93.1 34 24 Douala Cameroon 95.1 92.9 35 67 Warsaw Poland 95.0 82.4 36 64 Melbourne Australia 94.2 82.5 37 39 Munich Germany 93.1 87.6 38 45 Berlin Germany 93.0 85.9 39 44 Brussels Belgium 92.9 86.5 40 40 Frankfurt Germany 92.5 87.4 41 33 Dakar Senegal 92.2 89.0 42 28 Kiev Ukraine 91.7 91.4 43 43 Luxembourg Luxembourg 91.3 87.0 44 30 Almaty Kazakhstan 90.7 89.6 45 31 Bratislava Slovakia 90.6 89.2 46 45 Düsseldorf Germany 90.4 85.9 46 72 Riga Latvia 90.4 81.5 48 52 Mumbai India 90.3 84.9 49 59 Zagreb Croatia 90.0 83.5 50 57 Hamburg Germany 89.9 84.2
From www.finfacts.com:
Mercer Cost of Living Survey – Worldwide Rankings, 2008
The indices are based on Mercer's cost of living database and are modified to include rental accommodation costs and to reflect constant weighting and basket items. We do not recommend that expatriates use the figures represented here to compare their own compensation packages.