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The 20 best cities to move to if you want to earn big money

Here's how to live like a king

The 20 best cities to move to if you want to earn big money
Tom Victor
26 February 2018

The last few years may well have encouraged you to consider moving abroad for work.

Even if the uncertain political landscape in the UK hasn’t been enough to urge you to spread your wings on its own, it could be the case that you just fancy a bit of a change.

Maybe you’ve been giving it a lot of thought and doing extensive research, beyond just looking at the best cities for ‘broke millennials’ or the places where you’re most likely to have a great night out after slaving away at your desk for hours.

While it’s important to have things going on, we imagine wages will be a big factor for many of you. Which is why the HSBC Expat Survey – with its calculation of average expat salaries (and other benefits) across the globe – could well be your first port of call for identifying where to look for work.

The survey collated data from more than 25,000 expats, producing the following top 20 cities for mean salary for expats, as reported by CNBC.

  1. 20.Mumbai, India

    $217,165 (£154,443)

  2. 19.San Francisco, United States

    $207,227 (£147,368)

  3. 18.Zurich, Switzerland

    $206,875 (£147,118)

  4. 17.Shanghai, China

    $202,211 (£143,784)

  5. 16.Geneva, Switzerland

    $184,942 (£131,491)

  6. 15.New York, United States

    $182,240 (£129,570)

  7. 14.Los Angeles, United States

    $161,126 (£114,561)

  8. 13.Jakarta, Indonesia

    $152,589 (£108,492)

  9. 12.Hong Kong, China

    $148,410 (£105,521)

  10. 11.Paris, France

    $139,602 (£99,258)

  11. 10.Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    $138,177 (£98,228)

  12. 9.Moscow, Russia

    $135,909 (£96,617)

  13. 8.Sydney, Australia

    $134,368 (£95,522)

  14. 7.Tokyo, Japan

    $132,508 (£94,199)

  15. 6.Doha, Qatar

    $131,408 (£93,411)

  16. 5.Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    $127,456 (£90,602)

  17. 4.Kuwait City, Kuwait

    $123,041 (£87,501)

  18. 3.Bangkok, Thailand

    $119,601 (£85,054)

  19. 2.Nairobi, Kenya

    $119,182 (£84,770)

  20. 1.Singapore, Singapore

    $117,904 (£83,861)

For those of you wondering, the average salary for expats working in London is $107,863, equivalent to £76,719. That puts it above the global average of just under $100,000, and 26th overall between Sao Paulo and Auckland.

(Images: Trent Erwin/Unsplash/iStock)