Anyone who lives here knows Toronto is pretty pricey, but a new study has made that official. Toronto was just named the most expensive city in Canada for the second time in as many years.
The 2023 Mercer Cost of Living survey, which assessed over 400 cities worldwide, placed Toronto in spot 90 out of the 227 global cities that were ranked. That’s a slight — very slight! — improvement from last year, where Toronto was ranked the 89th most expensive in the world. The city comes in 26 spots ahead of Vancouver, in spot 116, despite having a lower average home price and lower average rents than Vancouver. It was last year that Toronto overtook Vancouver for the title of most expensive city in Canada, and it looks like that title is sticking with us.
Other Canadian cities on the list include Montreal, down 10 spots from last year in 135th place, Ottawa, down five spots to 137th and Calgary, down four spots to 145th.
“Compared to Canadian cities, the cost of living has increased more year over year in the U.S. with all American cities surveyed having gone up in the rankings since last year,” the report reads.
“Through the Cost of Living Survey, we see that despite domestic inflationary pressures that are affecting overall quality of living, Canada continues to be an attractive destination for remote workers,” Nicole Stewart, Principal at Career at Mercer Canada said in a statement.
Though with Toronto’s high ranking, perhaps remote workers might steer clear of the city and opt for the more wallet-friendly Montreal or Calgary instead.
At least we can say that we’re faring much better than the United States — New York City ranked 6th overall, with Los Angeles in 11th and San Francisco in 14th. Detroit, Houston and Cleveland all moved up over 20 spots since last year as well.
The survey measured the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
Here are the top 90 most expensive cities in the world:
- Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR)
- Singapore, Singapore
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Basel, Switzerland
- New York City, United States
- Bern, Switzerland
- Tel Aviv, Israel
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Nassau, Bahamas
- Los Angeles, United States
- Shanghai, China
- Beijing, China
- San Francisco, United States
- Honolulu, United States
- Seoul, South Korea
- London, United Kingdom
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Tokyo, Japan
- Shenzhen, China
- Boston, United States
- Miami, United States
- Washington, United States
- Chicago, United States
- Vienna, Austria
- Bangui, Central African Republic
- Djibouti, Djibouti
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Atlanta, United States
- Luanda, Angola
- Seattle, United States
- Kinshasa, The Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Helsinki, Finland
- Paris, France
- Guangzhou, China
- Berlin, Germany
- Munich, Germany
- Conakry, Guinea Republic
- N’Djamena, Chad
- Brussels, Belgium
- Victoria, Seychelles
- Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- The Hague, Netherlands
- Lagos, Nigeria
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Milan, Italy
- Philadelphia, United States
- Dublin, Ireland
- Libreville, Gabon
- Dallas, United States
- Montevideo, Uruguay
- Qingdao, China
- Sydney, Australia
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Luxembourg, Luxembourg
- Rome, Italy
- Oslo, Norway
- Houston, United States
- Hamburg, Germany
- San Jose, Costa Rica
- Riga, Latvia
- Pittsburgh, United States
- Dakar, Senegal
- Minneapolis, United States
- Busan, South Korea
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Noumea, New Caledonia
- Melbourne, Australia
- Portland, United States
- Nanjing, China
- Dusseldorf, Germany
- Barcelona, Spain
- Shenyang, China
- Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire
- St. Louis, United States
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Detroit, United States
- Douala, Cameroon
- Brisbane, Australia
- Madrid, Spain
- Brazzaville, The Republic Of Congo
- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Santiago, Chile
- Cleveland, United States
- Chengdu, China
- Toronto, Canada
