Abidjan ranked as Africa’s most expensive city in 2026

According to the 2026 Numbeo Cost of Living Index, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, is the most expensive city in Africa with a score of 45.2 relative to New York City. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, follows in second place with a score of 42.6, driven largely by high demand for housing from the diplomatic and aid-worker sectors.

South Africa features prominently in the top ten, with Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban all appearing in the rankings. Other cities included in the top ten are Harare, Windhoek, Accra, and Tangier. The index utilizes crowd-sourced data regarding groceries, transport, utilities, and restaurants to determine these costs.

In terms of national economic scale, International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections for 2026 indicate that Côte d’Ivoire has slipped to the 11th largest economy in Africa with a projected GDP of US$110.4 billion. The country was overtaken by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is projected to reach US$122.3 billion, a shift attributed largely to the strengthening of the Congolese franc against the US dollar.