Consumer prices across Europe - Which countries are the most expensive and cheapest?
The same shopping basket can cost almost four times as much, depending on where you are in Europe. But which countries are the most expensive and how can they be compared fairly?
Eurostat's price level indices provide the answer. They compare the cost of consumer goods and services in each country with the EU average. Simply put, if the same basket of goods and services costs an average of €100 across the EU, how much would that basket cost in each country?
To make the comparison representative, Eurostat bases the indices on the annual average national prices for more than 2,000 goods and services.
Within the EU, the gap is clear. Luxembourg tops the list, while Romania has the lowest prices. Consumer prices in Luxembourg are 2.5 times higher than in Romania. When EU candidate countries and EFTA members are included, Iceland becomes the most expensive country and North Macedonia the cheapest, widening the gap to 3.7 times.
In general, Western and Northern Europe tend to have higher price levels, while Central and Eastern Europe remain cheaper. Switzerland seems expensive, but Swiss wages are so high that purchasing power there is among the strongest in Europe; the same price level with a much lower salary would feel very different.
Denmark (40.2%), Ireland (39.6%) and Norway (38.4%) are also among the most expensive countries in Europe, around 40% above the EU average.
Among the four largest EU economies, Germany is the most expensive, with prices 9.1% higher than the EU average, while Spain is 8.9% cheaper. This means that a person would pay 18 euros more in Germany than in Spain for the same basket.
At the other end of the scale, prices are significantly lower in most of Southeastern Europe. In North Macedonia, a 100-euro basket of goods would cost just 49.7 euros, less than half the EU average. It would also cost 52.2 euros in Turkey, followed by Bosnia (55.7 euros), Romania (58.9 euros) and Bulgaria (60 euros). These countries are at least 40% cheaper than the EU. Montenegro (61), Serbia (62.5), Albania (65.7), Poland (71.1) and Hungary (71.6) are also among the cheapest countries, with prices at least 25% below the EU average.
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