The State of New South Wales offers an affordable lifestyle and its capital, Sydney, is among the less expensive of the world's global cities.

Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2007 ranked Sydney 21st in terms of "expensiveness" from a list of 143 cities, an improvement on the 19th place result in 2006, despite the strong appreciation of the Australian dollar. Asia Pacific centres such as Seoul (ranked third), Tokyo (fourth) and Hong Kong (fifth) present a considerably higher cost of living compared to Sydney.

The cost of living survey is based on the cost of a basket of more than 200 standard goods and services representing expatriate spending habits, including housing. Australia generally offers less expensive housing, food, healthcare, education and entertainment activities compared to other developed countries.