What your take-home pay buys: salaries adjusted for prices

What these numbers do not tell you

• They are national averages. Most jobs for people moving abroad are in Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona or Lisbon, where prices, and rents above all, are higher than the country as a whole.
• Housing is measured across all homes. The housing index covers the rents people pay and the rental value of homes their owners live in, across every tenancy in the country. A new lease in a big city usually costs much more, so check local rents before you accept an offer.
• Prices are from 2025, tax from 2026. Eurostat publishes price levels once a year. Inflation since then has differed somewhat between countries, so treat the figures as approximate.
• Some costs are not in take-home pay. In the Netherlands you also pay a basic health insurance premium of about €157 a month. Childcare, school fees and doctor's charges vary a lot between countries and are not covered here.
• Your own spending is not the average basket. If you spend mostly on rent and eating out, the category table above tells you more than the overall index.

How the numbers are worked out

Take-home pay comes from the same tax calculators as the rest of this site, with each country's 2026 income tax and employee social security rules. It is then divided by Eurostat's price level index for household final consumption expenditure, which compares what the same basket of goods and services costs in each country, at market exchange rates, with the EU average of 100. For example, Ireland: €44,925 × 100 ÷ 136.2 = €32,984.

The result is what your take-home pay would buy if you spent it at average EU prices. It is a way to compare countries, not an amount you will see on a payslip. To find the salary that keeps your take-home pay the same before prices, use the salary equivalent calculator; to weigh two concrete offers, including one in the UK, use the job offer comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Where in Europe does a salary go furthest after tax and prices?

Of the seven countries compared, Spain. €60,000 a year leaves €42,184 after tax there, which buys what €46,052 buys at average EU prices. The same salary is worth €32,984 in Ireland, 40% less.

Which of these countries is the most expensive?

Ireland, with consumer prices at 136.2% of the EU average in 2025. Portugal is the cheapest at 86.6%. The gap is widest for housing, water, electricity and heating and smallest for food and non-alcoholic drinks.

Does the higher take-home pay in Ireland make up for its prices?

Not at the same salary. €60,000 leaves the most after tax in Ireland, but to buy as much as €60,000 does in Spain you need a gross salary of about €96,212 in Ireland.

How up to date are the price levels?

They are Eurostat's price level indices for 2025, published on 9 July 2026. Eurostat publishes them once a year, so they lag behind the 2026 tax rules used for take-home pay. Price levels move slowly: the order of these seven countries was the same in 2023, 2024 and 2025.