ACI has constructed the annual indices and rankings of the cost of living, wages and purchasing power for expatriates and ordinary residents across the world’s major cities since 2005. This edition reports the results for 2025, continuing to provide consistent and comparable measures of urban living costs.
In recent years, affordability has emerged as a global concern. While the public continues to highlight a cost-of-living crisis, aggregate inflation data suggest moderation following the peaks of 2022–2023. The coexistence of relatively moderate inflation and persistent perceptions of unaffordability underscores the need for a more granular analysis.
Against this background, this annual study analyses the cost of living, wages and purchasing power for expatriates and ordinary residents across 103 major cities in the world. In 2025, New York, Los Angeles, Zurich, Geneva, and Singapore are the top five cities in the ranking for expatriates’ living costs. However, for ordinary residents, the top five cities are New York, Los Angeles, Zurich, Reykjavik, and Geneva. These findings highlight both the concentration of high living costs in global economic hubs and the variation in affordability across different regions.
ACI Perspectives 