Is Living In Europe Affordable For Expats?

The cost of living and spending power are important financial factors that expats need to consider when deciding to move to Europe.

Warm weather and a laid-back lifestyle are great attractions, but not much good if you can’t afford the bills.

Expat financial tracker Numbeo has crunched the numbers and come up with a cost of living and spending comparison for 100 European cities. The data comes from thousands of database entries input by expats living their dream.

Switzerland ranks Europe’s most expensive place to live, with six major cities taking the top rankings.

Top 10 most expensive cities for expats

Norway takes the rest of the top 10 places.

Outside Switzerland and Scandinavia, Paris has the highest cost of living in Europe.

London ranks 21st, while the good news for older expats is cities in the popular retirement destination of Spain only start to feature at 134th place for Bilbao, 139th for Barcelona and 143rd for Madrid.

The surprise highest entry is Dubrovnik, Croatia, at 27 in the ranking.

The UK features most in the rankings, with 15 cities rated, followed by the Netherlands and France (both 12) and Italy (11).

How the cities are rated

Prices in New York are the ground zero for rating the cost of living in other cities.

New York is rated at 100 for each index. Any city rated over 100 is more expensive than New York, while any rated less is cheaper.

For examples, the cost of living in Basel is 36.65% more expensive than New York, while spending power is 0.65% more.

Spending power is how much the average net salary for that city can buy in local goods and services.

Cost of living in Europe – 100 cities rated

Rank	City	Country	Cost of living	Rent	Spending power
1	Basel	Switzerland	136.65	50.09	100.65
2	Zurich	Switzerland	135.49	70.22	117.91
3	Lausanne	Switzerland	132.86	57.85	104.4
4	Geneva	Switzerland	131.75	70.07	109.73
5	Lugano	Switzerland	128.44	44.12	106.68
6	Bern	Switzerland	126.19	45.97	117.38
7	Tromso	Norway	113.15	37.86	74.44
8	Stavanger	Norway	107.95	37.01	79.16
9	Trondheim	Norway	107.13	38.63	78.31
10	Oslo	Norway	106.12	44.87	82.7
11	Bergen	Norway	104.07	35.42	86.5
12	Reykjavik	Iceland	98.75	48.32	69.81
13	Copenhagen	Denmark	97.49	51.91	84.96
14	Arhus	Denmark	95.04	35.65	86.46
15	Paris	France	94.23	51.78	69.34
16	Aalborg	Denmark	93.24	26.98	102.47
17	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	89.65	63.28	100.48
18	Stockholm	Sweden	87.49	42.09	80.77
19	Valletta	Malta	86.93	45.86	29.77
20	Amsterdam	Netherlands	86.8	59.25	79.07
21	London	United Kingdom	86.75	72.24	80.12
22	Dublin	Ireland	86.01	66.33	67.67
23	Cork	Ireland	85.85	44.81	72.36
24	Antibes	France	85.01	34.76	81.37
25	Odense	Denmark	84.97	30.52	86.89
26	Uppsala	Sweden	84.94	29.55	79.9
27	Dubrovnik	Croatia	84.29	26.59	31.89
28	Utrecht	Netherlands	84.26	45.91	74.55
29	Galway	Ireland	84.21	40.03	73.27
30	Milan	Italy	83.65	46.28	50.71
31	Breda	Netherlands	82.8	32.2	87.08
32	Eindhoven	Netherlands	82.62	39.51	85.29
33	Lyon	France	82.31	28.87	73.03
34	Nice	France	82.04	37.48	67.43
35	Strasbourg	France	82.01	26.35	74.02
36	Munich	Germany	82.01	48.61	90.73
37	Helsinki	Finland	81.43	39	82.88
38	Oulu	Finland	81.08	21.73	87.59
39	Brighton	United Kingdom	81.04	44.22	73.65
40	Peterborough	United Kingdom	81.03	25.45	58.27
41	Gothenburg	Sweden	81.02	35.26	84.65
42	Haarlem	Netherlands	80.84	53.53	79.66
43	Leiden	Netherlands	80.78	36.76	77.21
44	Rennes	France	80.7	21.58	67.23
45	Linz	Austria	80.69	28.39	71.38
46	Groningen	Netherlands	80.61	28.79	80.98
47	Lund	Sweden	80.38	30.31	101.78
48	Montpellier	France	79.86	25.06	58.18
49	Genoa	Italy	79.71	20.37	52.46
50	Turku	Finland	79.55	24.36	96.28
51	Graz	Austria	79.47	23.12	74.18
52	Antwerp	Belgium	79.41	26.64	78.49
53	Grenoble	France	79.22	22.86	70.31
54	Maastricht	Netherlands	79.1	37.37	78.53
55	Bergamo	Italy	79.06	21.55	58.42
56	Brescia	Italy	79.06	19.46	57.76
57	Brussels	Belgium	79.05	33.77	86.65
58	Leuven	Belgium	78.9	27.99	79.77
59	Nijmegen	Netherlands	78.89	34.48	103.33
60	Sliema	Malta	78.88	36	41.52
61	Rome	Italy	78.79	37.28	49.38
62	Toulouse	France	78.72	24.05	81.31
63	Salzburg	Austria	78.56	33.62	74.78
64	Malmo	Sweden	78.48	29.17	86.27
65	Rotterdam	Netherlands	78.24	43	82.17
66	Limerick	Ireland	77.95	37.9	67.7
67	Espoo	Finland	77.81	32.11	102.49
68	Tampere	Finland	77.46	26.69	86.6
69	Gent	Belgium	77.42	26.96	74.49
70	Parma	Italy	77.22	22.44	58.65
71	Bologna	Italy	77.02	28.6	54.46
72	Guildford	United Kingdom	76.35	49.77	75.71
73	Nantes	France	76.28	23.32	69.09
74	Edinburgh	United Kingdom	75.96	36.27	78.27
75	Florence	Italy	75.87	32.12	51.97
76	Reading	United Kingdom	75.73	41.41	110.46
77	Frankfurt	Germany	75.63	40.79	103.25
78	Lille	France	75.62	28.57	71.62
79	York	United Kingdom	75.48	31.62	70.76
80	Cambridge	United Kingdom	75.48	44.05	73.91
81	Heidelberg	Germany	75.29	33.39	87.76
82	Bristol	United Kingdom	75.28	38.81	72.89
83	Delft	Netherlands	75.23	31.68	95.41
84	Trieste	Italy	75.19	18.57	63.88
85	Enschede	Netherlands	75.1	27.21	87.37
86	Marseille	France	74.92	24.66	63.33
87	Milton Keynes	United Kingdom	74.9	35.32	72.11
88	Aberdeen	United Kingdom	74.79	26.59	96.98
89	Bonn	Germany	74.49	32.51	102.59
90	Hamburg	Germany	74.46	36.67	81.95
91	Augsburg	Germany	74.43	29.37	87.77
92	Swansea	United Kingdom	74.3	22.24	85.59
93	Verona	Italy	74.17	22.79	63.98
94	Mannheim	Germany	73.77	23.01	87.3
95	Turin	Italy	73.37	22.67	58.53
96	Swindon	United Kingdom	73.35	28.58	74.69
97	Oxford	United Kingdom	73.33	50.53	80.16
98	Portsmouth	United Kingdom	73.09	32.67	74.38
99	Erlangen	Germany	73.02	25.39	105.46
100	Nuremberg	Germany	72.81	26.61	105

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