Tel Aviv ranks 16th most expensive city for international workers
Tel Aviv is now the 16th most expensive city in the world for those working abroad, according to a recent survey conducted by Mercer, a U.S. consulting firm that conducts the annual poll to evaluate the living costs for international workers.
The new ranking is lower than Tel Aviv's position last year when it ranked 8th.
“This year’s ranking methodology encompassed 226 cities across five continents,” Mercer’s website stated. “It assessed the comparative costs of over 200 items in each location – from housing and transportation to food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.”
Tel Aviv, often referred to as the "city that never sleeps," is Israel's cultural and economic hub, known for its vibrant nightlife, bustling markets, and Mediterranean beaches.
In March, Newsweek ranked Tel Aviv's Sheba Hospital as the world’s 9th best among 2,400 medical facilities.
The decline in Tel Aviv’s cost of living partly reflects the decrease in rental prices over the past year.
“In Tel Aviv, rental prices dropped 22% in 2023 and up to March 2024,” the Times of Israel reported.
This change in Tel Aviv’s ranking from 2023 to 2024 is the reverse of what happened from 2021 to 2022.
In 2021, Tel Aviv was ranked 15th in Mercer’s cost of living analysis, One year later, in 2022, the city shot up to 6th place.
“For Israelis, the cost of living rose sharply in 2022, as inflation accelerated above 5 percent and housing prices soared almost 20%,” according to the Times of Israel report.
“Since the start of last year and before the outbreak of the war in October, both inflation and housing prices started to slow down gradually.”
The five cities ranked by Mercer as the most expensive to live in in 2024 were Hong Kong, Singapore, and three Swiss cities – Zurich, Geneva and Basel.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
