Business Desk 
Feb 19, 2025
In spite of the ever-increasing taxes on power bills and utility expenses, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad made it to the list of the world's cheapest cities.
Citing a global cost of living index, The Express Tribune reported that Lahore and Karachi were ranked the third and fourth cheapest cities in the world, whereas Islamabad clutched the 314th place out of a total of 327 cities surveyed in the 2025 Numbeo Cost of Living Index.
World's cheapest cities
Coimbatore in India and Alexandria in Egypt were named the most affordable cities globally.
The survey took into account various factors such as rent, groceries, restaurant prices, and purchasing power, all based on New York City’s cost of living.
World's most expensive cities
It was also brought to light by the report that Zurich, Lausanne, and Geneva in Switzerland are the world’s most expensive cities, with New York being the fourth most expensive city worldwide. Lahore and Karachi came up to be 85% more affordable than Zurich.
The fifth and sixth places as the world's most expensive cities were given to Swiss cities Basel and Bern, while San Francisco and Honolulu in the US secured seventh and eighth ranks, respectively.
Reykjavik in Iceland and Boston in the US closed the top-10 chart by respectively holding the ninth and tenth spots.
