Top 20 Most Expensive (For Living) Cities of the World : As per 2008 ratings by Forbes Magazine

Tokyo, Japan: Tokyo is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people. The population of the prefecture exceeds 12 million.

Osaka, Japan: Osaka is a city in Japan, located at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, in the Kansai region of the main island of Honshū.






Moscow, Russia: Moscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a global city. It is also the seventh largest city proper in the world, a mega city. Population of Moscow (as of 1 march 2009) is 10,514,400.


Geneva, Switzerland: Geneva is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandie (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). Situated where the Rhône River exits Lake Geneva (in French known as Lac Léman), it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.



Hong Kong: Hong Kong is a largely self-governing territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south. Hong Kong is a global metropolitan and international financial centre, and has a highly developed capitalist economy.




Zurich, Switzerland: Zürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne.




Copenhagen, Denmark: Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,167,569 (2009) and a metropolitan area with a population of 1,875,179 (2009). Copenhagen is situated on the Islands of Zealand and Amager.




New York City, U.S.: New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment. As host of the United Nations headquarters, it is also an important center for international affairs. The city is often referred to as New York City to differentiate it from the state of New York, of which it is a part.



Beijing, China: Beijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China. Governed as a municipality under direct administration of the central government, Beijing borders Hebei Province to the north, west, south, and for a small section in the east, and Tianjin Municipality to the southeast. Beijing is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.



Singapore: Singapore officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying 137 kilometers (85 mi) north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At 710.2 km2 (274.2 sq mi), Singapore, a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast Asia, is orders of magnitude larger than Monaco and Vatican City, the only other surviving sovereign city-states.

Milan, Italy: Milan is the second largest city in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the regional capital of Lombardy. The city has a population of about 1.3 million, while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.08 million. The Milan metropolitan area, by far the largest in Italy, is estimated by OECD to have a population of 7.4 million.



Shanghai, China: Shanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level status.




Paris, France: Paris is the capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (also known as the "Paris Region"; French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its limits largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimated population of 2,167,994 (January 2006), but the Paris aire urbaine (or metropolitan area) has a population of over 11 million, and is the most populated metropolitan area in the Eurozone.




Oslo, Norway: Oslo (formerly Christiania) is the capital and largest city in Norway. The city was founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway. In 1624 the town was largely destroyed by a fire. The Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt and changed the city's name to Christiania. The diocese of Oslo is one of the five original dioceses in Norway, who originated around the year 1070.



Caracas, Venezuela: Caracas is the capital and largest city of Venezuela. It is located in the north of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range (Cordillera de la Costa). The valley's temperatures are spring like. Terrain suitable for building lies between 760 and 910 m (2,500 and 3,000 ft) above sea level. The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2200 m (7400 ft) high mountain range, Cerro Ávila; to the south there are more hills and mountains.


London, U.K.: London is the capital of the United Kingdom and England. It has been an influential city for two millennia and its history goes back to its founding by the Romans. The city's core, the ancient City of London, still retains its limited medieval boundaries. However, since at least the nineteenth century, the name "London" has also referred to the whole metropolis that has developed around it. Today the bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, with its own elected mayor and assembly.


Tel Aviv, Israel: Tel Aviv-Yafo commonly called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, and with an estimated population of 391,300.The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of 51.8 square kilometers (20.0 sq mi). It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, home to 3.15 million people as of 2008. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai.




Rome, Italy: Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populous city, with over 2.7 million residents in a municipality of some 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi), while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million. It is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River.



Helsinki, Finland: Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 579,016 (30 June 2009),making it the most populous municipality in Finland by a wide margin. The foreign-born population stands at around 10%.



Dubai, UAE: Dubai is one of the seven emirates and the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula. The Dubai Municipality is sometimes called Dubai city to distinguish it from the emirate.