Just checked out the latest cost of living rankings and it's wild how Switzerland absolutely dominates. Like, the top six most expensive cities in the world are all Swiss - Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Lausanne, Lugano, and Bern. Zurich alone sits at 112.5 on the index, which means it's about 12.5% pricier than New York.

So how do they even measure this stuff? Basically they use New York as the baseline at 100 points. Anything above that is more expensive, anything below is cheaper. They factor in housing, food, transportation, utilities, entertainment, and local purchasing power. Pretty straightforward actually.

What's interesting is that the most expensive cities in the world aren't just concentrated in one country. The US shows up pretty strong with New York at the baseline, Honolulu at 94.4, and then San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston all in the top 20. California's real estate market really does push those numbers up. Even LA and San Diego crack the top 25.

Outside of Switzerland and the US, you've got Norway with multiple cities scattered through the rankings - Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger. Then Asia's mainly represented by Singapore at 85.3, with Tel Aviv and Hong Kong further down. London and Copenhagen also rank pretty high.

The salary part is worth noting though. Zurich residents pull in CHF 7,000 to 9,000 monthly on average, which is like $7,900 to $10,170. That's among the highest globally, so the expensive living costs are somewhat offset by what people actually earn there. Still, if you're looking at the most expensive cities in the world to settle down, Switzerland's pretty much the answer. The wealth and standard of living there is just on another level.