HK tops world for cost of living, survey finds

Asia dominated the world’s most expensive city rankings for employees working abroad, with Hong Kong taking the top spot as the costliest place, in global consulting firm Mercer’s 2022 Cost of Living survey. 

Hong Kong topped the worldwide rankings while four cities in Switzerland – Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern – ranked second to fifth respectively.

Tel Aviv in Israel ranked the 6th and New York in the United States got seventh. Three other Asian cities including Singapore (8th), Tokyo (9th) and Beijing (10th) rounded off the Top 10 list.

Tracey Ma, Regional Mobility Leader of Asia Pacific said, “In the past months, the strength of the Chinese Yuan has made mainland China pricier to live in.”

China cities make up six out of 10 priciest places to live in Asia. Apart from Beijing (4th in Asia, 10th in worldwide), there are Shanghai (5th in Asia, 12th in worldwide); Shenzhen (6th in Asia, 13th in worldwide); Guangzhou (8th in Asia, 18th in worldwide); Qingdao (9th in Asia, 22th in worldwide); and Nanjing (10th in Asia, 26th in worldwide).

This year’s ranking includes 227 cities across five continents, comparing the cost of more than 200 items in each location in March 2022. To stay up-to-date with the spending patterns of the expatriate workforce, Mercer revamped its Cost of Living methodology this year with new items such as smartwatches, tablet computers and smartphones added to the basket and non-relevant items such as music CDs and video movie rentals removed.

“Despite the relatively lower inflation in Asia compared to the rest of the world, high prices and strong currencies with the exception of Japan and Korea, continue to propel Asia as one of the most expensive regions for international employees,” Ma added.