Toronto is the most expensive city in Canada to live in but on a global comparison scale it's relatively cheap, according to a new survey.

The annual cost of living survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting ranked 143 cities around the world using New York City as a base with a scoring of 100 points.

Researchers compared the cost of over 200 items in each location with everything from a cup of coffee, housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment considered.

Toronto dropped 35 spots (78.8 points) to 82nd on the list.

Calgary and Vancouver dropped in the rankings, tumbling from 71st place to 92nd and 56th to 89th respectively.

Ottawa remains the cheapest Canadian city on the list, taking the 109th position (72.3 points)

Canadian cities have traditionally rated well on the list with this year's even lower positions reflecting a low rate of inflation and stable housing prices.

In addition, while the dollar has appreciated against the U.S. greenback, it has depreciated 13 per cent against the Euro since last year's survey.

Vancouver held its place in third on Mercer's 'Quality of Living' chart. Calgary and Ottawa placed 1st and 4th respectively on the 'Health and Sanitation' chart.

Globally, Moscow topped the list as the world's most expensive city for the second straight year.

"The appreciation of the Rouble against the U.S. dollar, combined with ever-increasing accommodation charges, has driven up costs for expatriates in Moscow," Yvonne Traber, research manager and senior associate at Mercer, said in a press release.

London took second position, moving up from fifth spot and Seoul moved down one into third.

The cheapest city on the list to live in was Asuncion in Paraguay. Asuncion took the spot for the fifth straight year.

The report found that the gap between the world's most and least expensive cities appears to be narrowing.

The survey is used to aid multinational companies and governments in setting compensation allowances for expatriate employees.

Top ten cities on the list:

1. MOSCOW Russia 134.4
2. LONDON United Kingdom 126.3
3. SEOUL South Korea 122.4
4. TOKYO Japan 122.1
5. HONG KONG Hong Kong 119.4
6. COPENHAGEN Denmark 110.2
7. GENEVA Switzerland 109.8
8. OSAKA Japan 108.4
9. ZURICH Switzerland 107.6
10. OSLO Norway 105.8