Just looked into where the most expensive cities in the world actually are, and Switzerland is absolutely dominating. Zurich tops the list at 112.5 on the Cost of Living Index, followed by Geneva at 111.4 and Basel at 110.7. Like, six out of the top six most expensive cities are all in Switzerland. That's wild. They use New York as the baseline with 100 points, so anything above that is pricier than NYC, anything below is cheaper.

The US has a decent number of expensive cities too - New York itself is the benchmark at 100, then Honolulu, San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston all crack the top rankings. California seems to be the main driver there with housing costs being insane. But even with all those US cities on the list, Switzerland just takes it. Oslo and some other Norwegian cities also rank pretty high, which makes sense given the Nordic cost structure.

What's interesting is how the index actually works - they compare everyday stuff like housing, food, transport, utilities against NYC prices. So if a city scores 112, it's roughly 12% more expensive than New York. Singapore, Tel Aviv, and Hong Kong represent Asia on the most expensive cities in the world rankings, but they're not as high as the European ones.

Basically, if you're looking at where the most expensive cities in the world to live are, Switzerland is your answer. The salaries there are proportionally high too though - Zurich averages like 7,000-9,000 CHF monthly, which helps offset the costs. But yeah, Switzerland's wealth and living standards clearly show in these numbers.