Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Annual Cost of Living and Quality of Living 2010 Survey Results Are Out


ECA's annual Cost of Living 2010 results are out and Tokyo beat out Luanda this year, which fell to third place after two straight years at number one. Oslo jumped to second place from eighth, and the other three big jumpers in the top twenty were: Stavanger, Norway up to six from 14; Moscow up to 15 from 29; and Seoul up to 20 from 102. The top twenty highest cost-of-living cities are:

1
  Tokyo

2
  Oslo

3
  Luanda

4
  Nagoya

5
  Yokohama

6
  Stavanger 

7
  Kobe 

8
  Copenhagen 

9
  Geneva 

10
  Zurich 

11
  Bern

12
  Basel

13
  Libreville 

14
  Helsinki 

15
  Moscow 

16
  Paris 

17
  Abidjan 

18
  Abuja 

19
  Tel Aviv

20
  Seoul


The major cities in India (and Bangladesh) ranked:

204
  New Delhi

209
  Mumbai
211
  Dhaka 
227
  Chennai
229
  Bangalore 

230
  Hyderabad 
236
  Pune 
237
  Kolkata 

Last year's ECA Cost of Living report can be found here.

The other interesting annual report, that was recently released, is Mercer's Quality of Living Worldwide City Rankings 2010. Vienna held its position as top city for quality of life again this year. The top ten didn't change much at all, the only difference being that Frankfurt moved up to tie with Munich for seventh place, from eighth last year.

1 Vienna
2 Zurich
3 Geneva
4 Vancouver (tied)
4 Auckland (tied)
6 Dusseldorf
7 Frankfurt (tied)
7 Munich (tied)
9 Bern
10 Sydney

There were more U.S. cities in the top 50 this year, with Honolulu (down to 31 from 29), San Francisco (down to 32 from 30), Boston (down to 37 from 35) and Chicago (45), Washington D.C. (45), New York (49) and Seattle (50).

Mercer also added an Eco-City Ranking which measured water availability, water potability, waste removal, sewage, air pollution and traffic congestion. The top ten best eco-cities friendly are:

1 Calgary
2 Honolulu
3 Ottawa
4 Helsinki
5 Wellington
6 Minneapolis
7 Adelaide
8 Copenhagen
9 Kobe (tied)
9 Oslo (tied)
9 Stockholm (tied)

Last year's Mercer Quality of Living report can be found here.

5 comments:

eve said...

Glad to see Luanda has gotten knocked down a few notches. It's a little intimidating heading to the MOST expensive city in the world. Better the 3rd!
Thank you so much for the links you sent over today about the various shows in the area. I was setting aside today for researching all of that and you just gave me a great place to start. You always leave such informative comments and I really appreciate it. Thanks!

Dustin said...

I lived on the economy in Tokyo for two years with a pretty low salary but did not have much of a problem. It's a great place to live.

I wonder how they measure these things? If they are including the cost of a house and car, then, yeah, Tokyo is pretty expensive. But you really don't need a house or a car to live there, apartment and trains work just fine.

Natalie Buda Smith said...

@Dustin - the main service of the company that puts the cost-of-living survey together is the development of compensation packages for large organizations that have employees across the globe, so I am betting that the base standard of living used is much higher than the one you lived on while in Tokyo!

They state that they consider:

Food: Groceries; dairy produce; meat and fish; fresh fruit and vegetables

Basics: Drink and tobacco; miscellaneous goods; services

General: Clothing; electrical goods; motoring; meals out

But do not consider accommodation, utilities, cars and school fees, since these "expenses are usually compensated for separately in expatriate packages."

They take a base set of items and cost compare across the different cities.

Good to know that you do not have to forgo a retirement to live in Tokyo!

Natalie said...

I can't believe Dubai didn't make the most expensive list. That's staggering, then, as to how much it must cost to live in the named cities. Wow...interesting stuff. Thank you!

Chuzai Living said...

I'm surprised that New York City or Washington, D.C. did not make it to the top 20 of the ECA's annual Cost of Living 2010 results. I find the cost of living in D.C. area very high, and it can be even higher than in Tokyo in my opinion. I found this post very interesting. Thanks for sharing!