I just reviewed a ranking of cities by cost of living and honestly I was surprised to see how much difference there is. It turns out Zurich takes the top spot as the most expensive city in the world with an index of 112.5, which means living there is almost 13% more costly than New York. Geneva and Basel follow very closely, also Swiss cities. It’s crazy that six of the most expensive cities in the world are all in Switzerland.

The interesting thing is that New York barely makes it into the top 10 as a baseline reference with 100 points. San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston in the United States are quite high on the list, but they don’t come close to the prices of Swiss cities. In Asia, Singapore and Tel Aviv appear in the ranking, although lower than I expected.

The index considers housing, food, transportation, services, and local purchasing power. That’s why the most expensive city in the world isn’t just about housing but the whole package. In Zurich, people earn between 7,000 to 9,000 Swiss francs per month on average, which helps residents cope with those high costs.

What catches my attention is that Europe completely dominates the top of the ranking. Norway has several expensive cities, Denmark as well, but Switzerland simply has no competition. If you’ve ever thought about moving abroad, you better check carefully where you end up because the difference between cities is huge.