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NYC Is Officially The 3rd Most Expensive City In The World

Oh the price we pay for smelly streets, terrible traffic and sweltering subways

According to a new Cost of Living Index from Numbeo, NYC is the third most expensive city in the entire world! So expensive, that the entire freaking study used NYC as a baseline. What we mean by that is all of the indices were relative to NYC’s baseline index of 100%.

Numbeo took a look at six specific indexes: cost of living index, rent index, groceries index, restaurants index, cost of living plus rent index, local purchasing power.

So for example, if the rent index for a random city in the ranking was 140%, that means that the city’s rent would be 40% more expensive than NYC’s. If a city’s groceries index was 70%, then that city’s groceries would be 30% less expensive than the groceries in NYC.

NYC skyline during sunset
Shutterstock / Marek Masik

In order to collect all of the data, Numbeo utilized both user-generated input and manual information collection from various governmental institutions, supermarket websites and so on.

But forget about the methodology, I’m sure everyone’s wondering who beat us out for second and first. Both second and first place hail from the same country of Switzerland with Geneva taking the title of the most expensive city in the world, and Zurich not far behind in second place. The United States dominates the rest of the top five with San Francisco in fourth and Boston in fifth.

NYC apartment building, pov from the ground
Unsplash / Daryan Shamkhali

Geneva’s highest indexes were cost of living (101.7), groceries (111.4), and restaurant price (101.5). But what really set it ahead in the ranking was Geneva’s sheer local purchasing power (152.2). Again, to clarify, that means the people making the average salary of a Geneva resident can purchase 52.2% more goods and services than those making the average salary in NYC.

Interestingly enough, both Geneva and Zurich have a lower rent index than NYC. So though Geneva is the most expensive city in the world, rent is still 40.4% less expensive than NYC rent.

You can explore the full ranking here.

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* This article was originally published here