Cost of living in the Netherlands
- Everything a household buys
- 121 index, EU average = 100
- Year
- 2024
- Source
- Eurostat
The Netherlands has a price level of 121 where the European Union average is 100, measured for 2024. A household basket there costs about 21 percent more than the same basket across the Union.
Twelve spending categories are published for this country, so the breakdown below is measured rather than inferred from the headline.
The spread inside the basket is wider than the headline suggests. Education is the most expensive category at 150.3, and Clothing and shoes the least at 93.
The Netherlands: prices rose 3 percent over the year to 2024, so the figures above will have drifted a little since they were recorded.
The Netherlands is the 29 cheapest of the 39 countries this source measures on the same scale, which places it in the dearer half of that group.
On the same scale it sits between Austria at 119.7 and Sweden at 123, which is the company that a rank of 29 out of 39 puts it in.
Directly comparable with 38 other countries measured on the same scale.
A price level is not a budget. It compares a standard basket between countries and takes no account of what you earn, of the difference between the capital and a small town, or of what a newcomer pays for rent as opposed to what a sitting tenant pays. Read it as a starting point for a comparison, not as a figure to plan around.
Everything a household buys
| Measure | Value | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Food and soft drinks | 98.9 | 2024 |
| Alcohol and tobacco | 126.9 | 2024 |
| Clothing and shoes | 93 | 2024 |
| Housing, water and energy | 129.8 | 2024 |
| Furniture and household goods | 101.1 | 2024 |
| Health | 139.8 | 2024 |
| Transport | 112.9 | 2024 |
| Phone and internet | 134.2 | 2024 |
| Recreation and culture | 112.4 | 2024 |
| Education | 150.3 | 2024 |
| Restaurants and hotels | 124.6 | 2024 |
| Other goods and services | 119.7 | 2024 |
Questions
the Netherlands: is it an expensive country to live in?
Measured against the reference this figure uses, the price level is 121 for 2024. That is the whole answer this page can give honestly, because a price level says what a basket costs and not what your life costs.
What year is this figure from?
It is the value recorded for 2024. Price level statistics are annual and always lag, so this is the most recent one published rather than a figure for today.
Can I compare this with another country here?
Only with countries measured on the same scale. This one is quoted as index, EU average = 100, and a country quoted on the other scale is not comparable with it without a conversion nobody has measured.
Related pages
Sources
- Eurostat, prc_ppp_ind (Eurostat reuse policy, commercial reuse permitted with attribution)