The World’s Most Expensive Cities to Live in

Luanda, the capital of the Southern African port city of Angola, took the top spot on the list, due to the costs of goods and security, according to Mercer. Other cities in Africa that ranked high in this year’s survey include Victoria, Ndjamena, and Kinshasa.

The Swiss city of Bern came in at tenth place. This year's list featured three European cities.

New York City was the only U.S. city to make the top 10, climbing two spots from last year’s ranking. San Francisco and Los Angeles were the next most expensive U.S. cities, in 22nd and 24th place respectively.

While Shanghai maintained a high spot on the list, many cities in China fell in this year’s ranking due to the weakening of the Chinese yuan compared to the U.S. dollar, according to Nathalie Constantin-Metral of Mercer.

Geneva was the second Swiss city to make the top 10, also coming in as the seventh most expensive city to live in according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s cost of living survey, which also compares the prices of goods and serves in cities around the world, for 2017.

Seoul, which is South Korea’s largest city, fell to sixth place this year.

While Singapore was dubbed the world’s most expensive place to live for the fourth year in the row on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s cost-of-living survey, it fell into fifth place on Mercer’s list.

Zurich is one of three European cities that still stands in Mercer’s top 10 list, coming in as the most expensive city in the continent.

Tokyo is Asia’s second most expensive city, with the strengthening of the Japanese yen, the high costs of consumer goods, and a dynamic housing market bringing the city higher up in the ranking, according to Constantin-Metral.

Hong Kong fell one spot from its top ranking last year, though it still remains Asia’s most expensive city. The reason for this, according to Mercer, is that Hong Kong’s currency is pegged to the U.S. dollar.