In 2024, among the EU Member States, the lowest price level for the consumer goods and services included in household final consumption was recorded in Bulgaria (39% below the EU average).
The highest level of GDP per capita in the European Union – 145% above the EU average – was reported by Luxembourg. This is partly due to a large number of foreign citizens accounting for a high share of the country’s total labor force and thus contributing to Luxembourg’s GDP, although they are not part of the resident population.
The volume index expresses the ratio between the GDP expenditure aggregates of a country converted to a common currency by means of PPP and the same indicator of the comparison-base country.
PPP expresses the number of currency units needed to purchase, in a given country, the same volume of goods and services that can be obtained with a currency unit of the country that is used as basis for comparison (Austria in 1993 and 1996, and the EU average since 1999). PPP is computed as a ratio between the prices applied under the internal conditions of each country.
In 2024, among the EU Member States, the lowest price level for the consumer goods and services included in household final consumption was recorded in Bulgaria (39% below the EU average), followed by Romania (36% below the EU average).
In 2024, among the EU Member States, the highest price level for household final consumption was reported in Denmark (41% above the EU average), followed by Ireland (37% above the EU average), Luxembourg (31% above the EU average) and Finland (22% above the EU average).
The price level indices show how many units of the same currency are needed to purchase an identical volume of goods and services in different countries, for each group of goods and services. In 2024, for the consumer goods and services included in final consumption, EUR100 are paid at EU level, EUR141 (the highest value) in Denmark and EUR61 (the lowest value) in Bulgaria.
Romania is the cheapest Member State for the “Food and non-alcoholic beverages” group (78%), followed by Slovakia (84%) and Poland (87%), while Luxembourg (124%) and Denmark (120%) have the highest price levels for this group of products.
Bulgaria has the lowest price level for the “Alcoholic beverages and tobacco” (68%), “Clothing and footwear” (78%) and “Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels” (39%) groups, followed by Poland and Slovakia, for “Alcoholic beverages and tobacco” (83%), and by Croatia, for “Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels” (44%).
Denmark has the highest price level for the products included in the “Clothing and footwear” group (133%), and Ireland is the most expensive EU country in terms of the products of the “Alcoholic beverages and tobacco” (203%) and “Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels” (187%) groups.