The most expensive place to live in the world for nonresidents is the Southern Africa city of Luanda, Angola, according to the just released Mercer Cost of Living Survey.
Ironically, Angola has gas, oil and diamond resources, but more than half of its residents are poor.
Nevertheless, for the second year in a row, the African city trumps the millionaires’ playground of Tokyo, Japan. Dubai didn’t even make the top five.
Housing, food, transportation, clothing, entertainment and household goods were surveyed in 214 cities across five continents. Housing is often the biggest expense.
The two deciding factors to determine a city’s cost of living is the strength or weakness against the U.S. dollar, and the local price movements of goods and services when compared to New York City, which served as the base for the study. The researchers explain, “If prices increase more in a surveyed city than in New York City, the cost of living there becomes more expensive, so that city will go up in the ranking.”
If you’re a New Yorker, undoubtedly, you’re crying foul. Clearly, your $1,700-a-month rent for your Manhattan apartment deserves to be somewhere on this list — and it is, at number 32.
Chicago residents, with the $25 parking fees to complement the highest gas prices in the nation (just a few pennies shy of $5 in some neighborhoods), you did not make the list at all.
The five most expensive places to live in the world for nonresidents are: Luanda, Angola (1st); Tokyo, Japan (2nd); N’Djamena, Chad (3rd); Moscow, Russia (4th) and Geneva, Switzerland (5th).
