Which city is the cheapest in the world?

THE LEAST expensive city in the world this year may sound familiar. It has propped up the Worldwide Cost of Living survey by EIU, our sister company, since 2017. Our map below shows how it and its neighbours compare with New York, the index’s benchmark city.

EIU compiles the cost of more than 200 products and services, which are converted into dollars. It then compares each city relative to New York, which has a benchmark score of 100. The world’s joint-most expensive cities in 2023, Singapore and Zurich, both scored 104. This year’s bottom entry was Damascus, Syria’s ravaged capital, which scored just 13.

The Middle East and Africa make up a large share of the bottom of the ranking; they are home to six of the ten cheapest cities in the world. But some parts of the Middle East are a lot more expensive: Tel Aviv in Israel and Amman in Jordan are the priciest in the region, with similar costs to many cities in western Europe and North America. (The prices were collected before the war in Gaza.) Gulf cities also crept higher this year.

In sub-Saharan Africa, of the nine cities included in the index, Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, is the most pricey. Douala, in Cameroon, rose by 16 places to 112th, the biggest climber of any city in Africa. (This was mostly because of the appreciation of its local currency against the dollar.)

The low rankings for much of the region will be of little comfort to local residents: EIU’s index does not account for prices relative to wages. Egypt, Iran and Syria, for example, continued to see double-digit inflation this year. Prices there may be cheaper than in New York, but few will find it affordable.

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