The most expensive cities in the world for 2022

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(CNN) — Global mobility company ECA International has released its annual list of the world’s most expensive cities to live in, and once again Hong-Kong topped the list.

The company calculates the list based on several factors, including the average price of household items such as milk and cooking oil, rent, utilities, public transportation and the strength of the local currency.

This is the third year in a row that Hong Kong has taken the dubious honor of being the most expensive city in the world on the ECA index. The index focuses specifically on foreign employees and expats in their rankings.

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Asia wins the prize

It’s safe to call Asia the most expensive continent, with five cities — Hong Kong, TokyoShanghai, Guangzhou and Seoul — countries in the top 10.

Some regulators include the Middle East in Asia. In that case, Tel Aviv — which ranks sixth — also counts toward Asia’s total and would give it six out of ten places.

Asia also claims the honor of being the fastest rising city on the overall list. That would be Colombo, Sri Lanka’s main metropolis, which jumped 23 places from 162 to 149.

Lee Quane, ECA’s regional director for Asia, explained the rationale for mainland China’s growing presence on the index.

“Most mainland Chinese cities in our ranking have higher inflation than we are used to seeing, but they are still typically lower than elsewhere in Asia,” Quane said in a statement. “Therefore, the main reason for their rise in the rankings is the continued strength of the Chinese yuan against other major currencies.”

Hong Kong’s competitive and tight housing market contributed to the “most expensive” ranking.

Li Zhihua/China News Service/Getty Images

Lower in the list

So, which cities are ranked lower than in previous years?

Paris, which has topped the ECA list in the past, dropped out of the top 30. Madrid, Rome and Brussels all fell as well.

“Almost every major city in the eurozone saw a drop in the rankings this year as the euro underperformed the US dollar and the British pound over the past 12 months,” explains Quane.

External factors such as politics and international conflicts can also play a role. Russian invasion of Ukraine and the associated sanctions imposed by many countries put Moscow in 62nd place and Saint Petersburg in 147th place.

The most expensive city in Europe is Geneva, Switzerland, which ranked third after Hong Kong and New York City. Switzerland uses the Swiss franc instead of the euro.

The coronavirus pandemic has, of course, played a role in global supply chains and other economic factors.

other rankings

ECA International is not the only company to rank cities in the world by economy.

The London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) publishes its Global Cost of Living Index every Dec. In 2021, Tel Aviv won the prize for the most expensive place to live, with Paris and Singapore in second place.

Hong Kong was in fifth place, behind Zurich. In 2020, Hong Kong, Zurich and Paris all shared the title of number one.

Both lists use the prices of everyday items such as groceries and fuel to determine their rankings. However, the EIU pegs its numbers to the US dollar, so economies that do the same — like Hong Kong, for example — are more likely to rank highly.

Regardless, regardless of the order in which cities are on different indexes, it is clear that Asian, European and North American cities are much more expensive to live in than their counterparts in Africa and South America.