It’s not typically recognised as a wealthy city in the same breath as, say, London or New York, but the world’s most expensive city to live in is Luanda in Angola.

And in second place is another African city, N’Djamena, in Chad, according to the findings of consultancy firm Mercer’s 2014 Cost of Living Survey.

But in the third and fourth place, it’s the more well-known Asian cities of Hong Kong and Singapore that were adjudged the world’s most expensive to live in. Inverting the results, it emerges that Karachi in neighbouring Pakistan is the world’s cheapest city to live in, with the cost of living three times lower than in Luanda.

Mumbai, at 140th rank, is India’s most expensive city, followed by New Delhi, ranked 157th.

Surprisingly, at 185th rank, Chennai is more expensive to live in than Bangalore (196) and Kolkata (205).

The survey covered 211 cities across five continents, and the comparative cost of 200 items in each location — including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment — was used to compile the rankings.

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