Hong Kong has been ranked the most expensive city to live in within Eastern Asia. The world’s largest cost-of-living database Numbeo publishes periodic tables ranking costs of living, property prices, and more for cities around the world, and Hong Kong has been confirmed as one of the most expensive in Asia.
Numbeo is a crowd-sourced global database that gathers data on the quality of life. Contributors from around the world can add statistics on housing, rent, salaries, transportation, healthcare, crime, and more about the countries they live in. This means that the data they gather is from on-the-ground, localised, and by everyday citizens instead of detached researchers.
Their current cost of living chart is topped by Hong Kong, with a score of 74 on the cost of living index. Our rent index, at 56, is also the costliest, far outstripping the second highest on the list (Tokyo, at an index of 28.4). According to Numbeo’s data, Hong Kong’s restaurants are also the most expensive within Eastern Asia, at an index of 49.3 compared to the second-highest of 38.4 from Seoul. In terms of overall cost of living, Hong Kong is followed by Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei, with Suzhou – the first mainland Chinese city on the list – coming in at fifth place just ahead of Shanghai.
Our neighbouring city of Shenzhen comes in as the seventh costliest place of living in Eastern Asia, while Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou are ranked eighth to 10th, respectively. This is rather surprisingly followed by Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia.
When judging by Asia as a whole, however, Hong Kong ranks as the third most costly city. The top slot goes to Singapore, with a cost of living index score of 81.7 and a rent index of 71. The city-state is followed by Tel Aviv-Yafo in Israel, with Hong Kong in third place, then Jerusalem and Haifa in Israel rounding up the top five. Other cities that one might more easily assume are expensive to live in come later on the list, such as Dubai at number 7, Tokyo at number 9, Phuket at number 26, and Shanghai at number 27.
Numbeo’s lists are crafted by taking into account factors such as housing indicators, perceived crime rates, quality of healthcare and transport, and other criteria. The indexes are then sorted into overall cost of living, rent, cost of groceries, restaurant prices, and local purchasing power. Visit Numbeo’s website to see the cost of living index in Asian cities, and more.
Current cost of living index by cities in Eastern Asia:
- Hong Kong (74)
- Seoul, South Korea (64.8)
- Tokyo, Japan (54.4)
- Taipei, Taiwan (48.6)
- Suzhou, China (41.4)
- Shanghai, China (38.7)
- Shenzhen, China (36.6)
- Beijing, China (36.4)
- Guangzhou, China (34.8)
- Hangzhou, China (33.2)
- Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (32.9)
- Nanjing, China (30.1)
- Chengdu, China (27.6)
These index statistics are accurate at the time of publication.
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