List: Most cost-effective capital cities in the world

With the prices of, well, everything, going up in recent years, growing families who are looking to establish themselves are probably factoring in the cost of living when it comes to choosing their forever home cities. 

But how do cities in other countries stack up? 

Compare the Market, an Australian price comparison service, compared over 40 “economically-developed” capital cities based on 11 different factors to determine the most cost-effective places to live in the world. 

Capital cities ranked from best to least best based on cost of living

Switzerland had the lowest cash rate of the countries included in the study, Compare the Market noted. 

The country that had the highest annual average wage was Luxembourg with $126,690. 

South Korea had the lowest unemployment rate and the U.S. had the cheapest average fuel prices. 

What were the determining factors? 

Compare the Market looked at 11 different cost-of-living factors to create their ranking. 

1. Cash rate
2. Annual wage
3. Unemployment rate
4. Fuel price
5. Electricity price
6. Public transportation
7. Milk price
8. Bread price
9. Coffee price
10. House price index
11. Rent price index

Inflation in the United States increased 2.6% in October, up from 2.4% in September, according to the Labor Department. 

The slight uptick was due to costlier rents, used cars and air fares but price increases slowed in September to their lowest pace since 2021, a sign that these price increases are leveling off.