As per Mercer’s Worldwide cost of living ranking 2012, Seoul is at the 22nd spot in the list of the most expensive city in the world.

Mercer releases its Cost of Living rankings annually and measures the comparative cost of living for expatriates in 214 major cities. They compare the cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. They use New York City as the base city for the rankings and the US dollar as the base currency.

If you are wondering which city tops the list then its Tokyo, which has emerged as the most expensive city for expatriates both in Asia and globally. The top 31 most expensive cities in this list has 10 from the Asia Pacific region including Tokyo at number 1, followed by Osaka at number 3, Singapore at number 6, Hong Kong at 9. Nagoya (Japan) at 10, Shanghai at 16, Beijing at 17, Seoul at 22, Shenzhen (China) at 30 and Guangzhou (China) at 31.

So comparatively moving to Seoul for work would work out to be a more affordable as compared to Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Japan.

You can read our detailed post on Cost of Living in Seoul 2012, which gives you a detailed breakup on expected monthly expenses in Seoul for students, bachelors, couples and married couple with kids.

To know more the worldwide cost of living rankings visit Mercer’s Cost of Living website for details.