Singapore ranked world’s most expensive city for 5th year in a row as ranking on UN happiness index drops

Singapore has been ranked the world’s most expensive city in the latest Worldwide Cost of Living Report for the 5th consecutive time. The report, by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), tied Paris, France and Zurich, Switzerland in second place while Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea took fourth and sixth place respectively.

Tokyo, Japan was notably absent in the list. Tokyo was the last city to take the top spot in 2013 until Singapore beat it out of the water.

The results by the EIU come as Singapore’s ranking in the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s happiness index has been plummeting, year after year.

This year, the World Happiness Report has ranked Singapore in the 34th place. Singapore was ranked in the 26th place last year and was ranked 22nd spot in 2016. This means that Singapore has dropped 12 notches since 2016.

Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan came in at 26th place, topping Singapore. Malaysia came right after Singapore, at the 35th spot while Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar came in at the 46th, 71st, 95th, 96th and the 130th spots respectively.

The annual UN happiness index ranks 156 territories according to categories like GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.