Global Cost of Living Rankings Released

Moscow retains its place as the world's most expensive city for the second consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer HR Consulting (download summary news release and top 50 rankings from survey here).  London is in second place (climbing three places since last year's survey) and Seoul is in third (down from second last year).

Mercer's survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location.

The top ten ranked cities worldwide by cost of living (along with their cost of living index, with New York, USA as the base city = 100, plus their 2006 ranking) are highlighted below.

1. Moscow, Russia (COL Index = 134.4, 2006 Rank = 1)
2. London, UK (COL Index = 126.3, 2006 Rank = 5
3. Seoul, South Korea (COL Index = 122.4, 2006 Rank = 2)
4. Tokyo, Japan (COL Index = 122.1, 2006 Rank = 3)
5. Hong Kong (COL Index = 119.4, 2006 Rank = 4)
6. Copenhagen, Denmark (COL Index = 110.2, 2006 Rank = 8)
7. Geneva, Switzerland (COL Index = 109.8, 2006 Rank = 7)
8. Osaka, Japan (COL Index = 108.4, 2006 Rank = 8)
9. Zurich, Switzerland (COL Index = 107.6, 2006 Rank = 9)
10. Oslo, Norway (COL Index = 105.8, 2006 Rank = 10)