List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees

These are lists of the world's most expensive cities for expatriate employees (not residents), according to the Mercer,^[1] ECA International^[2] and Xpatulator.com ^[3] cost-of-living surveys. Other surveys from online collaborative indices, such as Numbeo,^[4] Expatistan^[5] or Eardex^[6] are not covered by this article.

Various factors enter into a city's cost-of-living for expatriate employees, such as monetary value, consumer confidence, investment, interest rates, exchange rates of the country's currency, and housing costs. This list does not account for cost-of-living savings accrued to local citizens through government-subsidized housing, health care, and education, differences in taxation, and many other factors irrelevant to expatriates. Cost of living may be much higher for expatriates than for local residents in a developing country, especially if expatriates expect a standard of living similar to a developed country.

Mercer

Moscow, Russia

Tokyo, Japan

Luanda, Angola

Mercer's Cost of Living surveys are taken in March of each year.

The survey covers 214 cities around the world and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees. New York is used as the base city and all other cities are compared against New York. The cost of housing plays an important part in determining where cities are ranked.

Two main factors determine a city’s ranking in Mercer’s survey - the relative strength of the relevant currency against the US dollar over the prior 12 months and price movements over the prior 12 months compared to those in New York City as the base.

Top ten locations surveyed (2014)^[7]
Rank	City	Country	Region
1	Luanda	Angola	Africa
2	N'Djamena	Chad	Africa
3	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Asia Pacific
4	Singapore	Singapore	Asia Pacific
5	Zurich	Switzerland	Europe
6	Geneva	Switzerland	Europe
7	Tokyo	Japan	Asia Pacific
8	Bern	Switzerland	Europe
9	Moscow	Russia	Europe
10	Shanghai	China	Asia Pacific

ECA International

Every March and September, ECA International calculates the cost of living for expatriates in almost 400 cities around the world. The survey does not include certain living costs such as accommodation, utilities (electricity, gas, water costs), car purchase and school fees. These are usually compensated for separately in expatriate packages from cost of living allowances.

Top 20 cities surveyed (2013)^[2]
Ranking	City	Country
1	Caracas	Venezuela
2	Luanda	Angola
3	Oslo	Norway
4	Juba	South Sudan
5	Stavanger	Norway
6	Zürich	Switzerland
7	Geneva	Switzerland
8	Bern	Switzerland
9	Basel	Switzerland
10	Tokyo	Japan
11	Copenhagen	Denmark
12	Moscow	Russia
13	Brazzaville	Congo
14	Helsinki	Finland
15	Beijing	China
16	Nagoya	Japan
17	Libreville	Gabon
18	Shanghai	China
19	Stockholm	Sweden
20	Yokohama	Japan