Consulting firm Mercer recently released 2011 Cost of Living Survey, and found Bogota to be the 63rd most expensive city to live in the world.
According to Mercer, the survey is the world’s most comprehensive estimate for the cost of living in cities.
Bogota rose three positions this year, from 66th to 63rd. According to Gabriel Regalado, a member of Mercer’s human capital managment division, the “variation in the cost of living ranking for this year relates mainly to the appreciation of the peso against the dollar.”
The top 5 cities for highest cost of living in the Americas are: Sao Paolo, Brazil (10th), Rio de Janiero, Brazil (12th), New York, United States (32nd), Brasilia, Brasil (33rd) and Caracas, Venezuela (51st).
The top 5 cost of living cities worldwide are: Luanda, Angola (1st), Tokyo, Japan (2nd), N’Djamena, Chad (3rd), Moscow, Russia (4th) and Geneva, Switzerland (5th).
The two main factors used to determine a city’s ranking in Mercer’s Cost of Living survey are: the relative strength or weakness of the local currency against the US dollar over the prior 12 months, and price movements over the prior 12 months compared to those in New York city as the base.