I just reviewed the ranking of the most expensive cities in the world for 2025, and honestly, Switzerland completely dominates. Zurich, Geneva, and Basel occupy the top three spots, all with indices over 110. Literally, six of the ten most expensive cities are Swiss. It's incredible how a tiny country can have such a high cost of living.

The interesting thing is that the index uses New York as a reference with 100 points. Zurich is at 112.5, which means living there costs 12.5% more than in New York. And New York is the seventh most expensive city in the world, just that. If New York is in the top 10 but still cheaper than Zurich, you can imagine how things are in Switzerland.

In the United States, there's quite a bit of variation. Honolulu (94.4) is quite high due to being an island, but San Francisco (90.7), Seattle (86), and Boston (82.7) also have very high costs because of the tech industry. The curious thing is that Los Angeles and San Diego are at 76.3, much lower than many think.

In Asia, only Singapore (85.3) and Tel Aviv (81.2) make it into the top 25. Honestly, I thought Hong Kong would be higher. Norway also has several expensive cities like Oslo (84.3) and Bergen (81.4), but nothing compared to Switzerland.

What surprised me is that the cost of living varies tremendously depending on where you live. A city with an index of 60 is 40% cheaper than New York, while Zurich is only 12.5% more expensive. The difference between the most expensive city in the world and many others is staggering.