Cost of living in Lisbon: Portugal's capital in the top 100 most expensive cities for expats

Lisbon is the only Portuguese city in the most expensive cost of living ranking of 209 cities.

Is Lisbon expensive to live?

5 July 2021, 13:33

Lisbon is the 83rd most expensive city in the world in terms of cost of living, moving up 23 places in the ranking compared to last year. This is according to a study by Mercer released at the end of June 2021. The ranking of the most expensive cities for expats is led by Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. According to Mercer's 2021 Cost of Living city ranking, Lisbon, the only Portuguese city to enter the 209 places in the ranking, rose 23 places compared to 2020 and becomes the 83rd most expensive city for expatriates. Let's have a closer look at the ranking and at the cost of living in Lisbon.

If we look only at the 55 European cities in the ranking, Lisbon is in the middle of the table and is the 24th most expensive city in Europe. Returning to the global cost of living ranking, Ashgabat is the most expensive city for expats, pushing Hong Kong into second place.

Beirut is the third most expensive city, moving up 42 places in the ranking from last year as a result of a severe and extensive economic depression due to the escalation of several crises. These include the country's biggest ever financial crisis, COVID-19 and the explosion in the Port of Beirut in 2020.

The study indicates that Tokyo and Zurich fell one place each, from third and fourth respectively, to fourth and fifth, and Shanghai was sixth, up one position compared to last year. Singapore moved from fifth to seventh place. Other cities that appear in Mercer's top 10 are Geneva, Beijing and Bern, rounding off the 10 most expensive cities for expats in that order.

The cheapest cities in the world for expats are Tbilisi, Georgia, (207), Lusaka, Zambia (208) and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, ranked as the least expensive city in last position among the 209 cities studied.

According to Mercer's Cost of Living city ranking 2021, the pandemic has changed the results, with many countries still affected by the economic crisis, political instability and the COVID-19 health emergency.

The study on cost of living focuses on data from 209 cities on 5 continents and measuring the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing and rent, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

Tiago Borges, Mercer's business career leader, quoted in a release about the study, said, "Cost of living has always been an important factor in international mobility planning, but the pandemic has brought a whole new layer of complexity, as well as long-term implications related to employee health and safety, remote working policies and flexibility, among other considerations."

As for Portugal's capital, the cost of living in Lisbon is on the rise, with high rental prices playing a key part in increasing living expenses. In recent years, Lisbon has begun to creep up the annual ranking released by Mercer, with generalised increases in prices in the city in the areas of housing, catering and petrol responsible.