Most Expensive Cities in Europe

Ranking of cities by overall cost of living index. Index of 100 = New York City.

Top 5 Ranked

Zurich

2% more expensive

Geneva

1% more expensive

Copenhagen

17% cheaper

4 London

5 Amsterdam

Zurich

2% more expensive

Geneva

1% more expensive

Copenhagen

17% cheaper

4 London 18% cheaper

5 Amsterdam 18% cheaper

Overview

This ranking uses a weighted cost index calculated from user-contributed price data across 7 categories. For each city, we compute the average price in each category and compare it to New York City (baseline = 100). A score below 100 means cheaper; above 100 means more expensive.

Housing (35%): Rent, utilities, and accommodation costs

Groceries (20%): Food, beverages, and household supplies

Transportation (15%): Public transit, fuel, and vehicle costs

Dining (10%): Restaurants, cafes, and takeout meals

Entertainment (8%): Leisure activities, movies, and sports

Clothing (7%): Apparel, footwear, and accessories

Childcare (5%): Daycare, babysitting, and child-related services

City Rankings

Rank	City	Overall	Housing	Groceries	Transport	Dining	Entertain	Clothing	Childcare
1	Zurich Switzerland	102	77	121	113	146	70	141	79
2	Geneva Switzerland	101	72	124	113	152	67	153	62
3	Copenhagen Denmark	83	54	83	140	119	51	127	30
4	London United Kingdom	82	85	58	104	98	60	113	51
5	Amsterdam Netherlands	82	71	72	122	107	51	108	38
6	Dublin Ireland	77	69	66	117	100	52	97	18
7	Oslo Norway	73	51	81	96	108	53	108	27
8	Rotterdam Netherlands	72	52	69	109	101	47	117	27
9	The Hague (Den Haag) Netherlands	70	51	70	116	89	42	109	24
10	Paris France	69	46	83	99	89	43	110	25
11	Milan Italy	69	46	75	96	94	52	116	29
12	Eindhoven Netherlands	67	47	68	106	101	41	96	16
13	Munich Germany	66	52	64	88	101	44	96	27
14	Athlone Ireland	66	51	58	118	82	53	78	14
15	Antibes France	65	32	82	104	98	40	123	15
16	Stockholm Sweden	64	42	72	93	79	44	117	26
17	Haugesund Norway	63	43	71	96	93	46	94	5
18	Frankfurt Germany	63	45	67	87	90	53	93	28
19	Bath United Kingdom	63	49	59	104	80	47	77	29
20	Hamburg Germany	63	39	65	87	96	42	114	45
21	Sligo Ireland	63	36	51	157	72	53	71	5
22	Vienna Austria	63	37	82	80	83	41	105	46
23	Barcelona Spain	62	45	58	107	83	41	86	26
24	Zwolle Netherlands	62	35	69	112	81	40	94	18
25	Annecy France	61	29	80	104	82	49	100	13
26	Slough United Kingdom	61	47	50	104	87	41	83	29
27	Southampton United Kingdom	61	41	54	104	84	41	105	32
28	Kristiansand Norway	61	31	70	96	103	42	99	27
29	Royal Leamington Spa United Kingdom	61	44	52	104	76	46	86	34
30	Madrid Spain	60	42	55	106	80	38	93	23
31	Helsinki Finland	60	33	64	102	83	48	99	23
32	Berlin Germany	60	42	64	90	86	36	93	16
33	Basingstoke United Kingdom	60	39	52	104	77	50	91	32
34	Varese Italy	59	29	76	95	84	38	111	12
35	Venice Italy	59	33	71	74	95	56	112	13
36	Monza Italy	59	30	67	96	91	41	104	18
37	Plymouth United Kingdom	59	40	54	104	85	48	76	18
38	Bolton United Kingdom	59	39	54	104	69	60	85	25
39	Lisbon Portugal	59	45	50	99	71	36	94	29
40	Norwich United Kingdom	58	38	51	104	86	46	85	23
41	Skelleftea Sweden	58	33	64	90	75	74	95	10
42	Newport United Kingdom	58	40	51	104	73	41	69	57
43	Ipswich United Kingdom	58	35	52	104	82	58	79	35
44	Chester United Kingdom	58	40	50	104	81	41	81	29
45	Marbella Spain	57	43	49	107	66	35	80	29
46	Cascais Portugal	57	46	48	99	62	44	79	29
47	Aix-en-provence France	57	31	65	90	82	39	109	14
48	Rome Italy	57	38	67	80	76	48	81	19
49	Hasselt Belgium	57	30	59	84	98	33	106	37
50	Nantes France	56	25	68	104	76	33	98	25
51	Lancaster United Kingdom	56	32	51	88	83	47	67	102
52	San Sebastian Spain	56	35	56	107	72	38	82	20
53	Dubrovnik Croatia	56	33	46	106	100	49	64	14
54	Colchester United Kingdom	56	35	47	104	81	46	71	35
55	York United Kingdom	55	36	49	104	78	46	64	29
56	Lincoln United Kingdom	55	33	49	92	90	44	81	37
57	Oldenburg Germany	55	30	68	88	71	34	102	19
58	Swindon United Kingdom	55	38	51	104	75	40	69	11
59	Rennes France	55	22	69	99	74	35	102	25
60	Kaiserslautern Germany	55	24	64	87	81	42	98	41
61	Lucca Italy	55	25	67	93	76	47	90	18
62	Girona Spain	55	35	49	106	68	39	88	17
63	Northampton United Kingdom	55	34	46	104	78	38	71	40
64	Dijon France	54	21	65	104	81	38	93	21
65	Turin Italy	54	25	64	96	82	35	89	24
66	Cheltenham United Kingdom	54	34	43	104	75	42	87	25
67	Bradford United Kingdom	54	29	53	104	78	39	75	39
68	Valencia Spain	54	35	48	96	77	32	92	21
69	Angers France	54	27	58	104	73	42	75	18
70	Worcester United Kingdom	53	31	50	104	79	40	57	43
71	Prague Czech Republic	53	36	54	86	55	48	90	27
72	Sunderland United Kingdom	53	25	55	104	78	41	72	32
73	Santander Spain	53	24	54	107	76	35	92	16
74	Preston United Kingdom	53	32	53	104	66	40	66	16
75	Almada Portugal	52	35	47	96	68	28	87	19
76	Tallinn Estonia	52	25	53	91	74	46	102	14
77	Vicenza Italy	52	25	65	85	71	39	91	11
78	Zagreb Croatia	51	26	55	96	66	36	90	22
79	Porto Portugal	51	34	47	96	57	34	90	18
80	Tours France	51	18	72	88	82	36	79	15
81	Zadar Croatia	51	23	52	106	64	39	100	3
82	Vasteras Sweden	51	23	65	90	69	38	88	9
83	Corunna Spain	51	24	52	107	68	33	84	12
84	Faro Portugal	51	32	48	96	63	34	82	22
85	Warsaw Poland	51	35	45	90	56	35	90	27
86	Lecce Italy	51	19	59	103	72	47	77	9
87	Stoke-On-Trent United Kingdom	51	24	46	104	81	37	74	28
88	Belgrade Serbia	51	25	42	113	68	30	94	17
89	Udine Italy	50	22	62	90	76	36	74	21
90	Brest France	50	16	66	102	72	37	67	20
91	Almeria Spain	50	20	48	107	75	29	90	19
92	Tarragona Spain	50	27	47	96	71	40	79	12
93	Bratislava Slovakia	49	28	58	80	59	39	82	22
94	Liberec Czech Republic	49	20	46	128	45	46	74	10
95	Middlesbrough United Kingdom	49	27	46	83	77	46	72	35
96	Peterborough United Kingdom	49	33	46	73	77	42	62	39
97	Rouen France	49	19	56	99	69	41	75	19
98	Athens Greece	49	22	56	80	71	41	95	20
99	Brno Czech Republic	49	30	52	79	52	40	89	26
100	Vilnius Lithuania	49	25	45	96	63	34	94	16
101	Tirana Albania	48	22	50	96	62	38	88	10
102	Murcia Spain	48	22	48	96	74	29	82	17
103	Novara Italy	48	19	54	78	73	47	95	18
104	Pordenone Italy	48	21	56	80	78	38	77	14
105	Jonkoping Sweden	48	24	63	69	67	41	87	1
106	Krakow (Cracow) Poland	47	29	42	91	57	30	83	22
107	Setubal Portugal	47	27	45	99	56	25	69	14
108	Wroclaw Poland	47	29	42	93	54	30	81	16
109	Riga Latvia	47	20	48	84	67	39	88	29
110	Reggio Di Calabria Italy	47	16	55	93	65	42	76	19
111	Caen France	46	22	54	72	73	35	96	1
112	Thessaloniki Greece	46	19	53	83	74	36	83	14
113	Leiria Portugal	46	24	44	98	56	30	83	12
114	Corfu Greece	46	19	49	90	64	39	87	10
115	Gdansk Poland	46	28	41	90	58	32	75	14
116	Plzen Czech Republic	45	23	52	79	50	44	84	16
117	Tivat Montenegro	45	29	43	74	56	32	82	18
118	Sofia Bulgaria	44	21	48	85	56	32	83	16
119	Maribor Slovenia	44	18	52	72	62	33	99	15
120	Budapest Hungary	44	22	47	74	55	44	86	22
121	Santiago de Compostela Spain	43	21	44	80	65	35	73	14
122	Saint-Etienne France	43	17	61	58	79	30	76	15
123	Novi Sad Serbia	43	18	41	85	59	26	104	13
124	Bucharest Romania	43	18	43	79	60	37	82	25
125	Bar Montenegro	42	19	41	90	58	27	78	11
126	Bielsko-biala Poland	42	22	41	91	51	26	77	5
127	Cluj-napoca Romania	42	22	42	78	56	33	80	16
128	Zilina Slovakia	42	19	52	80	48	29	69	12
129	Bialystok Poland	41	19	37	91	49	31	76	8
130	Podgorica Montenegro	41	19	42	74	56	31	84	13
131	Kavala Greece	40	13	48	71	57	41	87	10
132	Chisinau Moldova	40	19	35	86	42	27	89	12
133	Nitra Slovakia	40	22	46	71	43	36	64	13
134	Skopje Macedonia	39	13	37	94	40	27	87	9
135	Ruse Bulgaria	36	11	41	85	49	23	62	16
136	Kiev Ukraine	36	16	33	83	36	24	77	14
137	Baia Mare Romania	34	9	36	78	48	34	63	12
138	Mostar Bosnia and Herzegovina	33	10	39	66	37	23	83	6
139	Vinnytsya Ukraine	30	10	28	83	30	17	53	13
140	Minsk Belarus	28	13	26	49	37	19	71	17
141	Ivano-Frankivsk Ukraine	17	8	30	0	24	15	56	6

Index value of 100 = New York City. Lower values indicate cheaper cost of living.

Europe Cost Heatmap

Interactive map showing the most expensive cities in Europe. Larger, redder circles indicate higher cost of living.

Lower cost

Medium cost

Higher cost

Understanding City Cost Differences

City costs are shaped by real estate markets, local wages, and demand for urban amenities. Global cities with strong economies and international appeal tend to be more expensive. Transportation costs vary based on car dependency versus public transit availability. Dining and entertainment costs reflect local wages and tourism demand. Comparing city costs helps with career decisions, retirement planning, and lifestyle choices.

Source: User-contributed price data. Rankings are based on the weighted average of category indices.

Last updated: February 2026

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Most Expensive Cities in Europe

Top 5 Ranked

Zurich

Geneva

Copenhagen

Zurich

Geneva

Copenhagen

Overview

City Rankings

Europe Cost Heatmap

Understanding City Cost Differences

Continue Reading

Cost of Living Index by Country

Cost of Living Index by US State

Cost of Living Index by City

Most Expensive Cities in the US

Most Expensive Cities in North America

Most Expensive Cities in Asia