€Cost of Living

The Cheapest Countries to Live in Europe in 2026

Updated October 2026 · first published April 2026

Eurostat measures what the same basket of goods and services costs in each country, against the EU average. The overall figure covers everything households spend money on, rent and utilities included. These are the 2025 figures, published in July 2026; the next come a year later.

The twelve cheapest

Country All household spending Housing & utilities Restaurants & hotels Food
1 North Macedonia 45% below 64% below 52% below 25% below
2 Bosnia and Herzegovina 41% below 70% below 41% below 14% below
3 Turkey 40% below 61% below 22% below 23% below
4 Bulgaria 38% below 59% below 44% below 7% below
5 Romania 35% below 46% below 41% below 20% below
6 Montenegro 34% below 54% below 33% below 14% below
7 Serbia 32% below 61% below 34% below 3% below
8 Albania 27% below 36% below 47% below 4% above
9 Poland 27% below 48% below 20% below 10% below
10 Hungary 22% below 33% below 18% below 5% below
11 Croatia 22% below 52% below 10% below 6% above
12 Lithuania 17% below 40% below 17% below 3% above

Inside the EU, Bulgaria is the cheapest, then Romania, Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Lithuania. The home page ranks all fifty countries.

Housing is where the savings are

Look across the rows and one thing stands out: housing is cheap almost everywhere on this list, while food is not. In Serbia, housing and utilities cost 61% less than the EU average, but food only 3% less. In Albania and Croatia, groceries cost more than the EU average. If you move to save money, rent is what makes the difference; the supermarket bill will look familiar.

Eating out varies more. It is cheapest in North Macedonia (52% below the EU average), Albania (47%) and Bulgaria (44%), but only 10% below in Croatia.

Countries Eurostat does not cover

For the rest of Europe, the World Bank publishes one overall price level each year, without categories. On that measure Georgia (47% below the EU average), Armenia (45% below) and Moldova (33% below) are cheaper still than most of the table above. Belarus, Russia and Ukraine come out lower again, but war and sanctions matter more there than prices.

Cities cost more

These are national figures. Capitals and coastal towns cost more than the country around them, and no source publishes comparable city prices across Europe. Norway's statistics office is one that measures rent by city: a one-room flat in Oslo rents for 15% more than the national average, and two rooms for 29% more. Expect the same pattern in Sofia, Bucharest, Belgrade or Warsaw.

Where the numbers come from

Eurostat, prc_ppp_ind_1: price level indices, EU27 = 100, 2025. World Bank, PA.NUS.PRVT.PLI: household price level, 2025. Statistics Norway, table 09895: rents by city, 2025. More in About the data.

What changed since April

The first version ranked five cities by rent and gave them star ratings, without saying where either came from. This version ranks countries by the price levels Eurostat and the World Bank publish.