Johor Bahru is the Least Expensive City in ASEAN to Live in According to Global Study on Cost of Living

Global consulting firm Mercer recently released the latest edition of its Cost of Living City Ranking, which makes for some interesting reading for us Malaysians, as 2 of our major cities were found to have among the lowest cost of living for international workers in Asia.

Specifically, Kuala Lumpur was ranked 200th in the ranking, while Johor Bahru is 214th, making the latter the least expensive city in Southeast Asia.

What the study is about and how it was conducted

In case you’re not familiar, the Cost of Living City Ranking 2024 ranks 226 cities across 5 continents in order, from the most expensive to the least expensive places to live in.

Furthermore, the ranking assessed the comparative costs of over 200 items in each location, from housing and transportation to food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

Mercer elaborated that to ensure consistency, New York City was utilised as the base city and currency movements were measured against the US Dollar.

Moreover, the figures utilised in the study were derived from a survey conducted in March 2024. Exchange rates from that time, coupled with data from Mercer’s International basket of goods and services were employed for calculations and baselines as well.

Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world to live in

With all of that established, the ranking found that Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world to live in, followed by Singapore in 2nd place and Switzerland’s Zurich in 3rd.

Making up the top 6 are 3 other Switzerland cities, which are Geneva in 4th, Basel in 5th and Bern in 6th, respectively.

Interestingly, the top 5 cities retained their respective rankings from the 2023 edition of the study.

Check out the top 10 most expensive cities to live in according to the study here:

Johor Bahru is the least expensive city in Southeast Asia to live in

For illustration purposes

As for Southeast Asia, Cambodia’s capital city Phnom Penh is named the 2nd most expensive city in the region to live in after Singapore, placing 123rd globally.

Bangkok is the 3rd most expensive city in the region (129th globally), followed by Manila in 4th (131st globally) and Jakarta in 5th (157th globally).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Johor Bahru is found to be the least expensive city in Southeast Asia to live in.

Dropping 2 spots from last year to 214th place in the ranking, Johor Bahru is now the 13th least expensive in the world to live in.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur recorded a drastic drop from last year, going down 20 places to 200th place in the overall ranking, making the Malaysian capital city the 3rd least expensive city in Southeast Asia to live in.

So, what do you guys think of the Cost of Living City Ranking 2024? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. 

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