No, it belongs to Luanda, the capital of Angola, which was ravaged by a decades-long civil war and has some of the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy rates in the world.
The city of 4.8 million also ranked seventh on ECA International's newest list of the world's most expensive cities, which looks at a different set of living costs.
Despite its vast wealth—Angola is the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa and the seventh-largest supplier to the U.S.—68% of its citizens live below the poverty line, according to USAID.
Nonetheless, the country has one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and Luanda is ripe for foreign investment opportunities in infrastructure and the oil and diamond industries.
But be forewarned: here's how foreigners in Luanda can expect to live.
Note: We compared the cost of living in Luanda to the cost of living in New York, the most expensive city in the U.S. and 32nd most expensive city for foreigners, according to Mercer.
In Luanda, a two-bedroom apartment in a luxury building costs $7,000 per month. In New York City it would cost $4,300.
But beer and cigarettes are relatively cheap in the Angolan capital. A pack of Marlboros costs $11.28 in New York; it's $2.72 in Luanda. And a $3.89 bottle of domestic beer in New York would cost $1.37 in Luanda.
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Julie Zeveloff West is Director of Editorial Product Strategy at Business Insider. She was previously Chief of Staff to Business Insider's editor-in-chief.Julie was the editor-in-chief of the Life division, where she oversaw Business Insider's entertainment, health, food, travel, style, parenting, and digital culture coverage. She was also a Deputy Editor for the site's business section, where she oversaw the lifestyle, transportation, retail, education, and lists & rankings sections, as well as its social media and graphic design teams. Before joining Business Insider in 2010, she was a reporter at Law360, where she covered international trade.In 2019, she was chosen as one of the Folio: Top Women in Media honorees in the Up and Comers category. Julie graduated from Cornell University and holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
