Mercer 2017 Cost of Living Rankings
Mercer's authoritative Cost of Living Survey, one of the world's most comprehensive, is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees. New York is used as the base city, and all cities are compared against it. Currency movements are measured against the US dollar. The survey covers 209 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. Governments and major companies use data from this survey to protect the purchasing power of their employees when transferred abroad and to assess local expatriate housing allowances.