I was looking at a ranking of the most expensive cities in the world and didn’t expect to see so much Switzerland at the top. Zurich, Geneva, Basel... basically the top six positions are all there. Zurich costs about 12.5% more than New York according to the index that uses NYC as a baseline at 100 points.

But what surprised me is how different the rest of the list is. In the US, it’s not just New York with crazy costs—Honolulu, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston—all competing for the top spots. Then there’s Norway with Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, and Stavanger scattered among the twenty most expensive. And Singapore, Tel Aviv, London... in short, the most expensive cities in the world are really spread out.

Switzerland remains the most expensive country overall. What I didn’t know is that salaries in Zurich make up for it quite a bit—around 7,000 to 9,000 Swiss francs per month, among the highest in the world. So yes, living there is costly, but you also earn well. In New York, which is the benchmark at 100 points, the cost is about 12% lower than Zurich.

If you look at the most expensive cities in the world by category, housing really makes a difference. In Basel, for example, it’s astronomical. Same goes for food, transportation, everything. It’s interesting to see how Europe dominates this list, especially Northern Europe and Switzerland, while Asia is mainly represented by Singapore and Tel Aviv.

Los Angeles and San Diego are oddly at the same level, while Amsterdam is a bit cheaper. Anyway, the ranking of the most expensive cities in the world really depends on local factors—tech industries, finance, geographic location. Zurich is number one precisely because it’s a global financial hub.