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If high living costs are a sign of attractiveness, Europe is on the decline. Asia and the United States will dominate the list of the world's most expensive cities in 2020
Anyone who has ever bought cheese or shampoo in a New York supermarket will particularly appreciate the prices in German retail. The price level at airports already illustrates the simple principle: with limited space and high demand, consumers have to dig deep into their pockets. The ranking of the most expensive cities in the world is therefore a bit of a competition to find out which metropolises are particularly popular. And this shows in 2020: Europe is losing touch with the world leaders.
Most expensive metropolises in Europe
The Economist Intelligence Unit's financial analysts now lead only three European cities in the top 10 most expensive cities in the world. The European Union is even represented with only one city. 31 of the 37 cities examined on the continent were ranked lower in the "Worldwide Cost of Living 2020" ranking. One reason was moderate energy prices that kept inflation low.
Europe was basically in the global trend. The cost of living in the 133 cities examined decreased by an average of four percent. However, this comparison is not based on the cost of living in the previous year. The cities are always measured against the values of New York City. This is a weakness of this ranking when it comes to assessing real purchasing power. Because currency fluctuations compared to the US dollar have caused many of the changes this year, such as the decline of the South Korean capital Seoul from the top 10.
Cost of living worldwide
The analysts of the Economist Group, a sister company of the British weekly newspaper The Economist, have been recording the cost of living worldwide for more than 30 years. For this purpose, the prices of over 160 products and services are recorded every six months in March and September. This includes spending on food, drink, clothing, rent, utilities, education, mobility and leisure activities.
These are the ten most expensive cities in the world.
# 10 Geneva
Even expensive Switzerland has to give up. Geneva was the fifth most expensive city in the world in the 2019 ranking of the Economist Intelligence Unit. In 2020 it was only enough for tenth place. Geneva came to 95 in the cost of living index (New York City = 100). The descent was symptomatic of almost all of Europe. Copenhagen fell by four places and thus left the top 10. Düsseldorf lost eleven ranks (in 43 place). It was the fourth largest descent on the list. Reykjavik even dropped from 15th to 29th place.
