I just reviewed which is the most expensive city in the world in 2025, and the results are quite interesting. It turns out Zurich takes the top spot with an index of 112.5, meaning living there costs approximately 12.5% more than in New York. But the crazy part is that the six most expensive cities are all in Switzerland. Geneva (111.4), Basel (110.7), Lausanne (110.5)... all Swiss. Clearly, that country completely dominates the ranking.

What surprised me was seeing which is the most expensive city in the world when comparing it to other major cities. New York is in 7th place with 100 points, which is its baseline. Honolulu in Hawaii follows quite high (94.4), but San Francisco and Seattle also have brutal costs. In Europe, besides Switzerland, you have Oslo in Norway (84.3) and Copenhagen in Denmark (81.3). In Asia, Singapore (85.3) and Tel Aviv (81.2) are the most notable.

Now, if you ask which is the most expensive city in the world to live in considering everything (housing, food, transportation, services), Zurich definitely wins. But what's interesting is that although costs are extremely high, wages are too. In Zurich, they earn between 7,000 and 9,000 Swiss francs per month, which helps offset the expenses. In contrast, in U.S. cities like San Francisco or Los Angeles, prices rise a lot but wages don’t grow at the same pace. That’s what makes the real difference when analyzing which city is truly the most expensive to live in.