Cheapest countries in Europe

Measure: Everything a household buys
Unit: index, EU average = 100
Year: 2024

Türkiye comes top of this list at 46.8, out of 37 countries measured on the same scale for 2024. The measure is a price level quoted as index, EU average = 100.

Europe is the one place where this comparison is on firm ground. Almost every country here is measured by the same institution on the same definition in the same year, which is rarely true of a world list, so the gaps between neighbours mean what they appear to mean. It also makes the spread visible: the distance between the cheapest and the dearest country inside a single continent and largely a single market is wider than most people expect.

The list sorts on one measure, the Eurostat household price level index, quoted as index, EU average = 100, and it covers 37 of the roughly 47 countries it claims. Nothing is blended: a list that mixed two price measures on two scales would be ordering two different things and would put currency regimes at the top rather than cheap countries.

A price level is not a cost of living for a person. It compares a standard basket across countries and takes no account of what you earn, where you live inside the country, or what you actually buy.