Budapest among the most livable cities in the EU?! – Fresh statistics

According to the latest Eurostat statistics, Budapest overtakes several European metropolises in terms of living standards. Let’s see how livable the Hungarian capital is!?

Every year, Eurostat publishes detailed economic data that can be used to compare living standards in each EU region. Due to large price differences between the countries, Eurostat also converts GDP data into a fictitious currency, the so-called PPS (Purchasing Power Standard). In order to carry out a realistic comparison in terms of livability between the countries, the different price levels are completely deducted by PPS and show the actual standard of living. The latest figures – that were published last week – show the ranking based on the situation in 2019;

according to which, Budapest is ahead of such cities as Vienna, Berlin or Madrid.

With this positive result, Budapest has realised its determination to become a more livable city than Vienna in 2019. As the Hungarian news portal Növekedés reports, besides the Hungarian capital, the big cities of Central and Eastern European countries also perform well. By way of example, Prague ranks second after top-ranked Luxembourg, followed by Dublin in the third, Brussels in the fourth and Paris in the fifth place.

       Region                                           GDP per capita (PPS)

1. Luxembourg                                            81,000 
2. Prague                                                     63,900
3. Dublin and surroundings                        63,100
4. Brussels and surroundings                      63,000
5. Paris and its region                                 55,200
6. Amsterdam and surroundings                53,000
7. Copenhagen and surroundings              51,900
8. Stockholm                                               51,900
9. Bratislava and surroundings                   50,400
10. Warsaw and its region                            49,800
11. Bucharest and its region                         49,700
12. Budapest                                               47,100
13. Vienna                                                     46,400
14. Helsinki and surroundings                      45,000
15. Madrid and surroundings                       38,500
16. Berlin                                                       38,200
17. Rome and its region                                34,300
18. Ljubljana and surroundings                     33,000
19. Lisbon and surroundings                         32,000
20. Athen and surroundings                          28,400
21. Sofia and its region                                  27,700
22. Zagreb and surroundings                        20,500

Considering the full list, Budapest is ranked in the middle field in terms of livability; however, the figures for Hungary’s countryside achieved much worse results. This also shows that Budapest has a huge predominance in the Hungarian economy.

According to the fresh statistics published by Eurostat, Central Hungary is the only region that exceeds the EU average.

After that, Western Transdanubia is the second-best, with 71% of the EU average. The Northern Great Plain and Northern Hungary are some of the poorest regions in the Union.

Bulgarian regions mainly dominate the negative top list. However, a French overseas territory has also been included: on the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, the standard of living of the 250,000 inhabitants has reached 32% of the EU average, just like in the case of the Severozapaden region in Bulgaria.

Read alsoBudapest is safer and more livable than London

Source: novekedes.hu; ec.europa.eu