Singapore is the second-most expensive city in the world for expats in 2024 (2024)

Earlier this year, Singapore was named as the most livable city in the world for Asian expats for multiple reasons – our stellar public transport system, general peacefulness, and level of English proficiency are just some of the handful. What was not mentioned, however, was the general cost of living as an expat in Singapore, which, as most of us probably know by now, is pretty darn high.

In the latest cost of living report by Mercer for 2024, Singapore is the second-most expensive city in the world for expats, with no change from last year’s ranking. This is not entirely surprising, given that Singapore is also the world’s most expensive city in general, for the ninth time in 11 years no less.

That said, the report also mentions that we rank highly for quality of living. Such data is more or less consistent across the list, whereby residing in most cities with great standards of living also comes with a hefty price. There are only a couple of outliers that manage to strike a balance between low living costs and high standards of living, and these include Warsaw, Budapest, and our friendly neighbour Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore happens to be one of only two Asian cities in the top 20 for this list; The only other one is Hong Kong, which takes the number one spot for the costliest city in the world for international workers. Cities from Switzerland and the United States of America appear quite a number of times in the top 20.

Here’s the top 20 most expensive cities in the world for expats in 2024:

1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Zurich, Switzerland
4. Geneva, Switzerland
5. Basel, Switzerland
6. Bern, Switzerland
7. New York City, USA
8. London, UK
9. Nassau, Bahamas
10. Los Angeles, USA
11. Copenhagen, Denmark
12. Honolulu, USA
13. San Francisco, USA
14. Bangui, Africa
15. Dubai, UAE
16. Tel Aviv, Israel
17. Miami, USA
18. Djibouti
19. Boston, USA
20. Chicago, USA

Check out the full ranking of 226 cities across the globe here, from most to least expensive for expats.READ MORE:
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