What Makes Zurich the World's Most Expensive City?

Zurich is the most expensive city in the world – Geneva in third place

Thu, Nov 30th 2023

Together with Singapore, the city of Zurich has taken first place in the ranking of the most expensive cities in the world published by the British magazine “The Economist”. Geneva came in third place together with New York.

*People with shopping bags on Zuercher Bahnhofstrasse, photographed on Friday November 26th, 2021 in Zuerich. (KEYSTONE/Gaetan Bally)*

The city on the Limmat has thus moved up five places since the last ranking, according to data published on Thursday by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the analytical research unit of the Economist Group. Zurich’s top position is partly due to the strong franc. However, high prices for food and leisure activities also played a role.

Zurich and Singapore (1st place each) were followed in the EIU rankings by Geneva and New York (3rd place each), Hong Kong (5th place), Los Angeles (6th place), Paris (7th place), Copenhagen and Tel Aviv (8th place each) and San Francisco (10th place).

Damascus is the cheapest place to live

According to the EIU, the cheapest city is Syria’s capital Damascus (ranked 173). It is followed by the Iranian capital Tehran (172nd) and Libya’s capital Tripoli (171st). The Russian cities of Moscow (142nd place) and St. Petersburg (147th place) were among the places that lost the most places due to the weakening of the rouble as a result of the sanctions due to the war in Ukraine.

According to the EIU, it surveys the prices of over 400 products and services in 173 cities twice a year and converts them into US dollars. The data for the current ranking was collected between mid-August and mid-September, i.e. before Israel’s war against Hamas. The outbreak of war has since influenced exchange rates in Israel and thus the price level, as the EIU writes.

©Keystone/SDA

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Zurich is the most expensive city in the world – Geneva in third place

Zurich is the most expensive city in the world – Geneva in third place

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