--- description: Down and out in Paris and London? Try spending a year in the world's biggest cost sinks, Venezuela, Angola or South Sudan. title: Cost of Living Survey: Caracas the World's Most Expensive City image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e2eeaa8446b668/6986977b1eebf7417d3716d8/caracas-venezuela-expats.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # And the World's Most Expensive City for Expats Is...  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 12, 2014 8:59 PM CUT  View of Central Caracas. View of Central Caracas.Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 12, 2014 8:59 PM CUT A new ranking of the world’s most expensive cities for expats knocked the usual candidates — New York, Tokyo and London — off of the list. The true epicenters of sticker shock were Venezuela, Angola and South Sudan. Global staffing firm ECA International [surveyed](http://www.eca-international.com/news/press%5Freleases/8025/Caracas%5Fis%5Fthe%5Fworld%5Fs%5Fmost%5Fexpensive%5Flocation%5Ffor%5Fexpatriates%5F%5Faccording%5Fto%5Fnew%5FECA%5FCost%5Fof%5FLiving%5FSurvey#.U5mum5RdVMo "undefined") prices in 440 cities, focusing on items that expats were most likely to buy on a daily basis, including groceries, clothing and bar tabs. The cities that topped the list tended to fall in one of two areas: Wealthy swathes of Scandinavia and economies coming apart at the seams. Caracas, Venezuela topped the list after runaway inflation hurdled the city from 32nd place to 1st in one year. Surveyors found price levels 40% above the second costliest city: Oslo, Norway. Luanda, Angola came in third partly due to import tariffs that have hiked the price for a half-liter tub of vanilla ice cream to $31\. Rounding out the list was Juba, South Sudan, where a 90 kilometer drive along one of the only continuous roads to the outside world can take upwards of 24 hours to navigate, [according](http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/pdf/10.1596/1813-9450-5814 "undefined") to the World Bank. The list offers a stark reminder that outside of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, the real sticker shock tends to hit the people who can least afford it. | **Global Rank 2014** | **Country** | **City** | | -------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | | 1 | Venezuela | Caracas | | 2 | Norway | Oslo | | 3 | Angola | Luanda | | 4 | Switzerland | Zurich | | 5 | Switzerland | Geneva | | 6 | Norway | Stavanger | | 7 | Switzerland | Bern | | 8 | Switzerland | Basel | | 9 | South Sudan | Juba | | 10 | Denmark | Copenhagen | _Source: ECA International_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2865152/most-expensive-city-expats/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2865152/most-expensive-city-expats/"},"headline":"And the World's Most Expensive City for Expats Is...","datePublished":"2014-06-12T20:59:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:23:12.585Z","description":"Down and out in Paris and London? Try spending a year in the world's biggest cost sinks, Venezuela, Angola or South Sudan","url":"https://time.com/2865152/most-expensive-city-expats/","keywords":["Venezuela","South Sudan","Money","inflation","cost of living","prices"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e2eeaa8446b668/6986977b1eebf7417d3716d8/caracas-venezuela-expats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e2eeaa8446b668/6986977b1eebf7417d3716d8/caracas-venezuela-expats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Caracas, Venezuela","caption":"Caracas, Venezuela","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2865152/most-expensive-city-expats/","name":"And the World's Most Expensive City for Expats Is..."}}]}] ```