Doha has the second lowest cost of living ranking among all Gulf cities as per Mercer

Doha has the second lowest cost of living ranking among all Gulf cities according to Mercer, one of the top financial services consulting firms in the world, which recently released its annual "Cost of Living Rankings of Cities for 2024." Out of 226 cities from five continents, Doha ranked 121st. In the meantime, the priciest city in the Arab world is Dubai, which is placed 15th overall. 

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (43rd) was the most expensive city to live in the region, while Djibouti (18th) was the second most expensive. Riyadh (90) and Jeddah (97) in Saudi Arabia came in fourth and fifth, respectively, followed by Amman, Jordan (108), Manama, Bahrain (110), Kuwait City (119), Doha, Qatar (121), and Muscat, Oman (122).

The methodology for this year's rating evaluated 226 cities across five continents. It examined the differences in price of more than 200 products in each place, including accommodation, transportation, food, clothes, home goods, and entertainment. 

New York City was used as the base city and currency changes were assessed against the US dollar to guarantee consistency in city-ranking comparisons. 

The data included in the cost comparisons comes from a study that was carried out across more than 400 cities in March of 2024. For computations and baselines, data from Mercer's international basket of commodities and services were combined with exchange rates from that era.