Most expensive countries to live in

Measure: Whole economy price level
Unit: ratio, United States = 1
Year: 2025

Sudan comes top of this list at 2.15, out of 199 countries measured on the same scale for 2025. The measure is a price level quoted as ratio, United States = 1.

Expensive is not the same as unaffordable. The countries at the top of this list are mostly high wage economies with strong currencies, and a resident earning locally may be no worse off than somebody in a cheap country earning local wages there. The list answers what a visitor or a newcomer pays, which is the case where a high price level genuinely hurts, because the income has not moved with the prices.

The list sorts on one measure, the World Bank price level ratio, quoted as ratio, United States = 1, and it covers 199 of the roughly 195 countries it claims. Nothing is blended: a list that mixed two price measures on two scales would be ordering two different things and would put currency regimes at the top rather than cheap countries.

A price level is not a cost of living for a person. It compares a standard basket across countries and takes no account of what you earn, where you live inside the country, or what you actually buy.