In 2025, the cost of living in some cities is a combination of high prices in goods, services and housing, which can only face who have income enough for it.
For those who do not reach enough income to cover those basic needs that each city demands are dedicated to poverty or to move to other cities More affordable, something that is already beginning to happen in our country in large cities such as Madrid or Barcelona.
The “Numbeo Index”
Numouso is a database Collaborative that collects the prices of restaurants, services and goods in the main cities of the world and, based on this data, it produces listings in which you can analyze which cities are the highest cost of life, in which the price of housing has a greater impact or determining the economic effort of its inhabitants to live in them.
For establishing a reference point in the comparison, Numbeo uses New York data as a reference value 100 in all its data. That implies that, if another city has an index of 112 in one of its parameters, it means that, in that parameter, that city is 12% more expensive than New York. If the value of the index is 88, it implies that it is a cheaper 12%. Based on these data, the portal Visualcapitalist.com has elaborated a graph in which it is clearly represented in what cities in the world is more expensive to live.
The most expensive cities to live
The graph prepared by VisualcapitalistNew York leads the global ranking as the most expensive city in the world. According to data collected by Numbeo, New York is positioned as the most expensive city, with a fork in the rent price ranging from $ 1,100 to $ 4,108 for an apartment in a room and up to $ 8,174 for a three bedroom apartment.
The Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva are followed in the ranking, with an index of the Cost of life more rental of 93.2 and 90.6 respectively, indicating that living in them is around 7 and 10% cheaper than doing so In New York. In the fourth position there is San Francisco (85.3) that sneaks between the Swiss cities of Basel (83.9) and Lausana (83,4).
If we focus on more expensive cities to live From Spain including the cost of life, we find Barcelona in position 137 with an index of cost of life including rental of 48.29, followed by Madrid (47.38) that occupies the 142nd position of the global ranking. Palma de Mallorca (43,79) and Malaga (39,24) follow them closely, occupying positions 180 and 203 of the world respectively.
The weight of rent when living in a city
The price of housing is a determining factor when establishing the cost of living in a city. For this reason, the list changes completely when the data is filtered to unlink the cost of the home of the equation. In that scenario, New York no longer leads the List of more expensive cities to livebut goes down to seventh place.
Those who do maintain consistency are the Swiss cities, which remain the most expensive in the world to live, with Zurich (112.54) leading the list, followed by Geneva (111,41), Basel (110,71), Lausana (110.55) and Lugano (108,38).
From the Spanish perspective, all cities fall several positions indicating the impact of the rental price at your cost of life. Barcelona (with a cost of life without rent of 57.03) goes on to position 183, while Madrid (55.79) falls less positions until 187. In the case of Palma de Mallorca (55,13) and Malaga (48,02) the fall is just ten positions, indicating that the housing price impact It is less than in Madrid and Barcelona, but the cost of the rest of the index factors (food price, Public Transportation Pricerestaurants, services, etc.) It is higher in these cities.
Living in some cities is more difficult
A very important fact that can be extracted from this database on the cost of life in large cities, is the purchasing power index, which uses the salary average of that city and compares it to the base reference that is that of New York. The result leaves us a photo of which citizens do a minor economic effort to live In a certain city.
In this scenario, the inhabitants of Mannheim in Germany are the ones who must make less effort to live in the city with an index of 198.64, which implies that these citizens can buy 98.64% more goods and services than a New York with their salary. The Swiss Basel (194,85), Bern (186.76) and Lausana (180,45) sneak into the top five, occupying positions two, four and five respectively. Only truncated Swiss hegemony the city of Erlangen (189,69) in Germany, which is placed in third position.
Spanish cities draw a slightly different panorama, being Valencia (131,73) Alicante (113,27), Seville (102.62) and Madrid (101,39) the only ones in which its inhabitants They have greater purchasing power than a New Yorker in the field of his city. On the other hand, Barcelona (88,37), Málaga (86,34), Palma de Mallorca (86,34) are cities where the opposite happens, its inhabitants have a lower local purchasing power rate by having a lower average salary and a higher life cost.
In Xataka | The cities with more billionaires as residents, gathered in this illustrative graphic
Image | Visualcapitalist.com
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