The average for 2021 based on 41 countries was 107.05 index points. The highest value was in Switzerland: 211.98 index points and the lowest value was in Belarus: 40.99 index points. The indicator is available from 2017 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

According to a mid-2024 index, Switzerland was the most expensive country to live in Europe, with an index score of 74.9. Iceland followed in the second place with around 13 points less.

A table comparing the cost of living in various European Union countries, including expenses for rent, utilities, food, and transportation in major cities

The average transaction price of new housing in Europe was the highest in Norway, whereas existing homes were the most expensive in Austria. Since there is no central body that collects and tracks transaction activity or house prices across the whole continent or the European Union, not all countries are included. To compile the ranking, the source weighed the transaction prices of residential properties in the most important cities in each country based on data from their national offices. For example, in Germany, the cities included were Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Berlin. House prices have been soaring, with Sweden topping the ranking Considering the RHPI of houses in Europe (the price index in real terms, which measures price changes of single-family properties adjusted for the impact of inflation), however, the picture changes. Sweden, Luxembourg and Norway top this ranking, meaning residential property prices have surged the most in these countries. Real values were calculated using the so-called Personal Consumption Expenditure Deflator (PCE), This PCE uses both consumer prices as well as consumer expenditures, like medical and health care expenses paid by employers. It is meant to show how expensive housing is compared to the way of living in a country. Home ownership highest in Eastern Europe The home ownership rate in Europe varied from country to country. In 2020, roughly half of all homes in Germany were owner-occupied whereas home ownership was at nearly 97 percent in Romania or around 90 percent in Slovakia and Lithuania. These numbers were considerably higher than in France or Italy, where homeowners made up 65 percent and 72 percent of their respective populations.For more information on the topic of property in Europe, visit the following pages as a starting point for your research: real estate investments in Europe and residential real estate in Europe.

Abstract (en): These data were gathered in order to determine the cost of living as well as the cost of production in selected industries in the United States and several Western European countries. The study is comprised of nine industries (cotton and woolen textiles, glass, pig iron, bar iron, steel, bituminous coal, coke, and iron ore) and contains family-level information on the household composition, income and expenditures of workers in these industries. Additional topics covered include sources of income, ages and sex of children, detailed occupation of the household head, detailed expenditures for food as well as nonfood items, and characteristics of the family's dwelling units. Industrial workers and their families in 24 states in the United States and in 5 European nations (France, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Belgium). Smallest Geographic Unit: country 2006-12-07 The Analytic Variables data file has been revised to correct various discrepancies found in the original file. Additional data including various average price indices, were also added to the file as well as SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The original codebooks are now available in PDF format. (1) Units of measurement for variables describing income, expenditure, and goods consumed can be found in the codebook. (2) For variable OCC464 (464 Occupation Codes) the following codes are undocumented: 206, 207, 247, and 503. (3) The data file for Part 2 is a text file containing interviewer comments which provide additional information about the household. There are no setup files to accompany the Part 2 data file.

The house price to income index in Europe declined in almost all European countries in 2023, indicating that income grew faster than house prices. Portugal, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands led the house price to income index ranking in 2023, with values exceeding 125 index points. Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland were on the other side of the spectrum, with less than 100 index points. The house price to income ratio is an indicator for the development of housing affordability across OECD countries and is calculated as the nominal house prices divided by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 chosen as a base year. A ratio higher than 100 means that the nominal house price growth since 2015 has outpaced the nominal disposable income growth, and housing is therefore comparatively less affordable. In 2023, the OECD average stood at 117.4 index points.

Consumer Price Index CPI in European Union increased to 131.92 points in February from 131.33 points in January of 2025. This dataset provides - European Union Consumer Price Index (CPI) - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar.

As of 2022, Israel had the highest price level index among listed countries, amounting to 138, with 100 being the average of OECD countries. Switzerland and Iceland followed on the places behind. On the other hand, Turkey and India had the lowest price levels compared to the OECD average. This price index shows differences in price levels in different countries. Another very popular index indicating the value of money is the Big Mac index, showing how much a Big Mac costs in different countries. This list was also topped by Switzerland in 2023.

What are the intergenerational resource transfer contributions of parents and non-parents in Europe? Using National Transfer Accounts and National Time Transfer Accounts for twelve countries around 2010, we go beyond public transfers (net taxes) to also value two statistically much less visible transfer types in the family realm: of market goods (money) and of unpaid household labour (time). Non-parents contribute almost exclusively to public transfers. But parents additionally provide still larger private transfers: mothers mainly time, fathers mainly money. Estimating transfer stocks over the working life, the average parental/non-parental contribution ratio flips from 0.73 (public transfers alone) to 2.66 (all three transfers combined). The tax rates implicitly imposed thereby on rearing children are multiples of the value-added tax rates in place on consumption goods. The magnitude of these invisible transfer asymmetries carries multiple implications for policy debates. For instance, it raises the question whether European societies unwittingly tax their own reproduction too heavily. Methods We have not collected data but utilized the European microdata infrastructure. Specifically, we used the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), the harmonized European Household Budget Surveys (HBS), the Harmonized European Time Use Survey (HETUS), and for health-related data, the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS). These comparative datasets are collected by the national statistical agencies of the Member States of the European Union (EU) under the supervision of the EU’s statistical agency, Eurostat. The protocols of the surveys in question go through ethical checks concerning information and consent of respondents as well asanonymization of released data. Macro data used in this paper can be downloaded from the site of the statistical agency of the European Union, Eurostat. Variable names are indicated in the paper. Microdata are publicly available upon request from Eurostat, (contact via ESTATMicrodata-access@ec.europa.eu) but cannot be transferred to a third party. To apply for access to Eurostat's microdata, a researcher's organization must first be recognized as a research entity “ a university, research institution, or research department in a public administration, bank, statistical institute, etc. Applications for research entity recognition should be sent to ESTATENTITIESASSESSMENT@ec.europa.eu. A full replication package, including codes, is provisionally available athttps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MKuwxXE_erfSeo3o-Hv6FK_HZo8rR3cU?usp=sharing and this will accompany the paper as an additional supplementary material upon acceptance.

Determining cost of living and cost of production in selected industries in the US and several European countries. Sources of income / family composition / detailed occupation of the household head / detailed expenditures for food and non-food items / characteristics of dwelling / interviewer description of living condition. Background variables: basic characteristics/ residence/ housing situation/ household characteristics/ occupation/employment/ income/capital assets

In January 2025, the UK inflation rate for goods was one percent and five percent for services. Prices for goods accelerated significantly, sharply between in 2021 and 2022 before falling in 2023. By comparison, prices for services initially grew at a more moderate rate, but have also not fallen as quickly. The overall CPI inflation rate for the UK reached a recent high of 11.1 percent in October 2022 and remained in double-figures until April 2023, when it fell to 8.7 percent. As of December 2024, the UK's inflation rate was 2.5 percent, down from 2.6 percent in the previous month. Sectors driving high inflation In late 2024, communication was the sector with the highest inflation rate, with prices increasing by 6.1 percent as of December 2024. During the recent period of high inflation that eased in 2023, food and energy prices were particular high, with housing and energy inflation far higher than in any other sector, peaking at 26.6 percent towards the end of 2022. High food and energy prices since 2021 have been one of the main causes of the cost of living crisis in the UK, especially for low-income households that spend a higher share of their income on these categories. This is likely one of the factors driving increasing food bank usage in the UK, which saw approximately 3.12 million people use a food bank in 2023/24, compared with 1.9 million just before the COVID-19 pandemic. The global inflation crisis The UK has not been alone in suffering rapid price increases since 2021. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a series of economic and geopolitical shocks had a dramatic impact on the global economy. A global supply chain crisis failed to meet rising demand in 2021, leading to the beginning of an Inflation Crisis, which was only exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The war directly influenced the prices of food and energy, as both countries were major exporters of important crops. European imports of hydrocarbons from Russia were also steadily reduced throughout 2022 and 2023, resulting in higher energy prices throughout the year.

Rising prices, inflation, and the cost of living were seen by almost a quarter of the people in the European Union as being one of the two most important issues facing their country in 2023. Prior to the most recent month, concern about rising prices and inflation was highest in 2022, when between 53 and 54 percent of people in the EU stating this was an important issue. Concerns over rising prices have slightly declined among EU citizens in 2024, with 33 percent stating it was one of the two most important issues facing their country.

This scatter chart displays urban population living in areas where elevation is below 5 meters (% of total population) against expense (% of GDP) and is filtered where the continent is Europe. The data is about countries.

Between 2010 and 2023, energy poverty in the European Union saw a net decrease, despite fluctuations. As a result of a cost-of living crisis and exceptionally high fuel prices throughout 2022, more people struggled to adequately heat their homes than they did in 2021. Bulgaria is the country most affected by energy poverty in the EU, although it was able to notable improve conditions since 2010.

Abstract

The Household Budget Survey has been regularly conducted since July 1995 by Statistics Estonia (formerly known as the Statistical Office of Estonia).

The goals of Estonia Household Budget Survey are to get information about the economic situation of households; to calculate indicators reflecting socio-economic development of the society (standards of living, cost of living, inequality, poverty, etc.); to project socio-political measures and estimate their effectiveness.

In addition to income and expenditure, the survey provides information about the housing conditions of households, availability of durable goods and additional sources of income. It was also surveyed how the households estimated their economic possibilities and how large income the households would like to receive in order to manage comfortably without excessive luxury.

The methodology of the survey, which was worked out by the scientists of the Family Laboratory and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics of Tartu University, is close to the methodology of surveys conducted in other European countries. Population of Household Budget Survey is all Estonian non-institutional households.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• Households,
• Individuals.

Universe

Population of Household Budget Survey is all Estonian non-institutional households. Inhabitants of the nursing homes, prisons, boarding schools and monasteries do not belong to the population of HBS.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments are used in the study:

1) Household Picture (Household Picture - Changes) filled in by the interviewer at the first meeting with the household. At the second and third visit to the household the interviewer fills in the "Household Picture - Changes", where changes in the household which have taken place during three months are recorded.

Household Picture contains general data about the size and composition of the household (number of members, age, gender, relationship to the head of the household, nationality, educational level, ability to work, relation to work, area of occupation, form of ownership of enterprise, social group and group of occupation of household members).

Part A of the Household Picture contains data about the economic situation of the household: housing conditions, estimation of the sufficiency of the household's income, possibilities of using free services, use of land, purchasing power of the household, ownership of technical items (durable goods) and desirable income needed in order to manage comfortably without luxury.

2) The diary book of food expenditure contains data about the food expenditure of the household during half a month (half of the sample fills in the diary in the first half of the month - from 1st to 15th day - and half of the sample does it in the second half of the month - from 16th to 30th (31st) day of the month). Eating out and the consumption of self-produced or free food products are registered as well.

3) The diary book of income, taxes and expenditure contains data about monetary and non-monetary income of the surveyed month, taxes paid by the household and goods and services bought by the household. The separate parts in the diary are for recording the expenditure on construction and renovation activities and expenditure related to the household's economic and production activities and lastly expenditure on the investment of money and other transactions (depositing, borrowing, lending of money, etc).

In the first quarter of 2024, Amsterdam was the most expensive city to rent a furnished one-bedroom apartment among the 23 leading European cities surveyed. At 2,300 euros per month, rent in Amsterdam was more than twice as high as in Brussels. Amsterdam was also the most expensive city to rent a private room.One of the main factors driving high rents across European cities is the same as any other consumer-driven business. If demand outweighs supply, prices will inflate. The drive for high paid professionals to be located centrally in prime locations, mixed with the low levels of available space, high land, and construction costs, all help keep rental prices increasing.

In 2023, Germany had the largest housing stock among European countries with a total of 43.6 million housing units. Other countries heading the ranking were France, Spain, and the United Kingdom (UK). This was not surprising, considering that the top four countries have some of the largest population in Europe. In terms of the number of housing units per 1,000 citizens, however, the top three countries were Bulgaria, Spain and France. Which European countries build the most housing? Supply of new housing varies greatly in different countries. In 2023, Ireland and Poland delivered the highest number of housing completions, but when it comes to construction starts, Ireland topped the ranking, leaving Serbia and Austria in second and third place, respectively. How did house prices change in 2023? Demand for housing remained strong in 2023, causing house prices to grow in almost all European countries. The United Kingdom was one of the few countries where home prices declined - a result of the soaring interest rates and cost of living crisis. Hungary was at the other side of the spectrum, with house prices surging by more than 13 percent.

In Europe, care home costs for dependent seniors varied greatly from one country to another. In 2019, the average monthly cost of a care home reached over 3020 euros in the United Kingdom, whereas in Sweden the average cost amounted to 1300 euros.

Italians were among the most affected by the cost of living crisis in Europe in 2022. According to a September survey, 41 percent of Italians reported having struggled to pay their energy bills within the past three months. Natural gas is among the most impacted commodities by the Russia-Ukraine war, with European wholesale prices having skyrocketed throughout the year. In countries such as Italy and the United Kingdom where natural gas is the most consumed energy source, households were particularly affected by rising energy costs.

According to the latest Eurostat survey, Poland is one of the cheapest countries in the European Union regarding housing and telecommunication expenses. According to purchasing power parity and including inflation, Poland's food prices in 2023 were almost 22 percent cheaper. Compared to the European Union, Poles paid 56 percent less for housing costs. Only consumer electronics and clothing prices remained at approximately the same level as the EU average.