• Launched in January 2010
• Collaborative database of prices (crowdsourced, like Wikipedia). The website users enter the prices for their own cities. Therefore, not all of the 900+ cities contained in the database have data yet.
• Uses Prague as anchor value (Prague = 100)
• 65,000 prices entered in 429 different cities by 17,000 users coming from 110 different countries.
• Compiles prices for 33 various products divided into 6 categories (Food, Housing, Clothes, Transportation, Health, and Entertainment).
• The index shows only the cities that have enough data to be reliable. All cities are accesible in the application, though.
• More information about expatistan:
  • What is it?
  • How does it work?
  • Frequently Asked Questions

• As of January 2011, Expatistan.com's cost of living index ranks Tokyo, Japan as the number one most expensive city in the world.
• Following behind Tokyo are Zurich, Oslo, Sydney and Perth. Australia also claims a third city in the top ten, with Melbourne at #6, followed by London, Singapore, New York City and Washington D.C. But Brisbane in Australia, though ranked 11th most expensive city, actually shares the same price index, 189, as Washington D.C.
• The top 20 most expensive cities are dominated by Europe with 8 cities, Australia with 4 cities, while North America claims 3 cities, Asia has 3 with Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong, placing South America last with 2 cities in Brazil.
• The world's cheapest city for expats, out of the 117 cities currently listed in the index is Ahmedabad, India, with a price index of 67.
• Asia contains the biggest disparity, with the world's most expensive city, Tokyo and also the cheapest city, Ahmedabad, India.
• South America's two most expensive cities rank in the top 20, and are both located in Brazil: Brasilia at #18 and Sao Paulo at #20. Brazil continues to represent South American again on the index with Rio de Janeiro at #43 and Curitiba at #66. However, Uruguay's capital, Montevideo shows up at #92, and Chile's capital city of Santiago follows right behind at #93.
• Dubai, the UAE's first entry comes in at #51, while Africa's first two entries, Johannesburg and Pretoria, come in at #74 and #75, respectively.
• An interesting commonality of the top 10 most expensive cities: all are located adjacent to one or more bodies of water.
• In fact, the 8 US cities listed in the top 50 are also all waterfront cities.

1. Tokyo (Japan)
2. Geneva (Switzerland)
3. Oslo (Norway)
4. Zurich (Switzerland)
5. Perth (Australia)

Global Index

Breakdown by Region

Africa

Asia

West and Southern Europe

East and Central Europe

Latin America

Middle East

US and Canada

Oceania