Oslo is the most expensive city in the world...
FRONT PAGE
Site Search
About us
UBS: Most expensive and richest cities
ECA: Most expensive cities
EIU: Most expensive cities
Mercer: Most expensive cities
World's richest cities (GDP)
Richest cities (earnings)
Most powerful cities
World's top cities
World's best financial cities
European growth cities 2009
Europe's top city brands
Real estate USA
Real estate Europe
European business cities
Best world cities to live in
Global cities
World's largest cities
and their mayors 2010
Worldwide | Elections | North America | Latin America | Europe | Asia | Africa |
The most expensive and
richest cities in the world
A survey by UBS
18 August 2011: Oslo, Zurich, Geneva, Copenhagen, Stockhom, Tokyo and Sydney have emerged as the world's most expensive cities based on a standardised basket of 122 goods and services surveyed by UBS. The basket costs the least in Delhi, Manila and Mumbai. People in Zurich, Geneva and Copenhagen earn the most in the world, while the highest purchasing power is enjoyed in Zurich, Sydney and Luxembourg.| Prices | Earnings | Purchasing power | iPod index |
Prices
Oslo, Zurich and Geneva are the most expensive cities in the most recent UBS survey. Sydney continues to move up the table, which, to some extent can be explained by the Australian dollar's continued appreciation against both the US dollar and the euro.
However, Sydney is just one of many cities that have seen a jump in their rankings. This is in contrast to US cities, which now hold much lower positions. America's most expensive city, New York, used to regularly feature in the top but this year is only ranked 14. The drop can be exlained to the depreciation of the US dollar against other world currencies. On average, the currencies of cities surveyed by UBS appreciated by nice per cent against the US dollar. The Swedish krona increased in value by 21 per cent, while the Swiss franc appreciated by 20 per cent. Ranking & table
Earnings
The UBS survey of 73 international cities found that employees in Zurich, Geneva and Copenhagen had the highest gross earnings. Although Copenhagen is still in the top three of our rankings, it used to be number one in 2009. The reasons for its decline are partly inflation but also Denmark's largely flat GDP during the past two years. The Swiss franc has also appreciated versus the Danish krone.
Brussels and Helsinki both benefited from the appreciation of the euro against the US dollar, as they saw their wage rankings rise by three and five places respectively over the last two years in the UBS survey. The gap between the highest (Zurich) and the lowest (Mumbai) gross wage levels increased by 0.4 per cent since last year. Ranking & table
Purchasing power
Comparing domestic prices for a universal basket of goods against corresponding domestic wages allowed the UBS researchers to examine the difference in relative purchasing power. Therefore people working in Zurich can afford the most domestically in relation to other cities in the survey. Ranking & table
The iPod index
One vivid way to illustrate the relative purchasing power of wages is to replace the abstract basket of goods and services with a specific, highly uniform product that is available everywhere with the same quality, and then calculate how long an employee would have to work to be able to afford it in each city. The study determined that employees have to work a global average of 37 minutes to earn enough to pay for a Big Mac, 22 minutes for a kilo of rice and 25 minutes for a kilo of bread. For the first time, a non-food product was used in the study to compare working hours.
The iPod nano with 8 GB of storage is an ideal example of a globally uniform product. An average wage-earner in Zurich and New York can buy a nano from an Apple store after nine hours of work. At the other end of the spectrum, workers in Mumbai, need to work 20 nine-hour days – roughly the equivalent of one month's salary – to purchase an iPod nano. Ranking & table
Related research
| THE MOST EXPENSIVE AND RICHEST CITIES IN THE WORLD UBS survey (2011): Most expensiv and richeste cities (Intro) | World's most expensive cities (table) | Richest cities by personal earnings (table) | Richest cities by purchasing power (table | The iPod index | ECA International survey (2011): Introduction | Table: World | Table: Europe | Table: Asia | Mercer survey (2011): Most expensive cities EIU survey (2009): Most expensive cities RICHEST CITIES BY GDP Introduction | 150 richest cities in 2005 | 150 richest cities in 2020 | Europe's richest cities | |
The average employee has to work nine hours to afford an iPod nano, whereas in Mumbai he has to work 177 hours
Related research
THE MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES IN THE WORLD
UBS survey (August 2011): Most expensive cities (Intro) | World's most expensive cities (table) | Richest cities by gross earnings (table) | Richest cities by purchasing power (table | iPod index |
ECA International survey (June 2009): Introduction | Table: World | Table: Europe | Table: Asia |
Mercer survey (2011): Most expensive cities
EIU survey (2009): Most expensive cities
RICHEST CITIES BY GDP
Introduction | 150 richest cities in 2005 | 150 richest cities in 2020 | Europe's richest cities |
THE LARGEST CITIES IN THE WORLD AND THEIR MAYORS 2010
Introduction
Cities by size: 1 to 150 | 151 to 300 | 301 to 450 | 451 to 550 |
Cities in alphabetical order: A to D | E to L | M to R | S to Z |
Cities by countries: A to D | E to L | M to R | S to Z |