Just looked into where the most expensive cities in the world actually are right now, and Switzerland is basically running the show. Like, six of the top six most expensive places to live are all Swiss cities - Zurich leading at 112.5, then Geneva and Basel right behind it. It's wild how concentrated that is.

The way they measure this is pretty straightforward. They use New York as the baseline (score of 100), so anything above that means you're paying more than NYC, anything below is cheaper. Zurich's 112.5 means living there costs about 12.5% more than Manhattan. For context, salaries there average between 7,900 to 10,170 USD monthly, which helps explain how people afford it.

Beyond Switzerland, the US actually has a bunch of cities scattered throughout the most expensive cities in the world rankings. New York is the American benchmark at 100, but you've also got Honolulu at 94.4, San Francisco at 90.7, and Seattle at 86. Even LA and San Diego made the top 25. Tech industry demand is basically pushing up housing costs everywhere.

Norway pops up multiple times too - Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger all in the top 25. Singapore represents Asia pretty well on the list, along with Tel Aviv and Hong Kong. What's interesting is how Europe dominates overall when you look at the most expensive cities in the world. Switzerland's wealth and banking sector clearly translates into astronomical living costs, but it's not just them pushing prices up globally.