Bucharest among the cheapest cities in Europe in terms of living costs

The capital is the most expensive city to live in within Romania, but it ranked 179th in a ranking of 218 European cities.

Europe’s most expensive city to live in is the Swiss city of Basel, according to Numbeo, the biggest internet database on the cost of living. Cities in Switzerland, in fact, take up the first 5 spots in the ranking, followed by Oslo, Reykjavik, and three other cities in Norway.

Romania’s most expensive cities, in order, are Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, and the Black Sea port city of Constanța.

A family of four living in Bucharest will have monthly expenses of nearly RON 9,600 (EUR 1,943) excluding rent. For one person to lead a decent lifestyle in Romania’s capital, he or she will have to spend RON 2,741 (EUR 555), excluding rent.

The capital overtakes Cluj-Napoca and Constanța in all aspects in terms of costs. Rents are 5% higher in Bucharest than in Cluj, while restaurant prices are, on average, 15% higher. The figures double when Bucharest is compared to Constanța.

Using the database, Euronews journalists pointed out that rents are 55% lower in Bucharest than in Viena, while living costs are 38% lower. Romania’s capital is, however, a slightly more expensive place to live in than Budapest.

Numbeo’s database is crowd-sourced and takes several indicators into account when laying out the cost of living in a certain city: housing indicators, perceived crime rates, healthcare quality, transport quality, and other statistics. To build it, Numbeo gathered over 8 million prices in nearly 11,000 cities entered by approximately 700,000 people.

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