Cost-of-living comparison · Eurostat PLI 2024
🇧🇬 Bulgaria vs 🇮🇸 Iceland
How the cost of living compares between Bulgaria and Iceland - overall and across rent, groceries, transport, healthcare, utilities and dining, weighed against local income.
- Cheaper overall
- Bulgaria
- Price gap
- 204%
Planning a move? Scale your income from Bulgaria to Iceland in the calculator, then save the pair to come back to it.
Cost by category - Bulgaria vs Iceland
Bulgaria - price level by category
Iceland - price level by category
Side-by-side
| Category (EU-27 = 100) | 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 🇮🇸 Iceland |
|---|---|---|
| Overall cost | 57 | 173 |
| Housing & utilities | 38 | 164 |
| Groceries | 89 | 144 |
| Transport | 72 | 136 |
| Healthcare | 44 | 234 |
| Utilities | 52 | 64 |
| Restaurants | 53 | 167 |
Highlighted = lower price level (or higher affordability). Affordability = median net income ÷ cost index, higher is better.
What the Bulgaria vs Iceland comparison shows
On Eurostat's comparative price-level scale (EU-27 = 100), Bulgaria is the cheaper of the two overall at index 57, against 173 for Iceland - a difference of about 204% in everyday prices. Because the same standardised basket is priced in both countries, that gap is directly comparable and not an artefact of exchange rates.
The category table above shows the gap is rarely uniform. Housing usually drives most of the difference because rent cannot be traded across borders, so weight the rent row most heavily, a country that is cheaper on groceries but dearer on rent often works out more expensive in practice, since the rent gap is larger in absolute euros than the savings on smaller categories.
For a complete picture, weigh these prices against local income: the cheaper country is not automatically the one where a typical income goes furthest.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bulgaria or Iceland cheaper to live in?▼
Bulgaria is cheaper overall, its Eurostat cost-of-living index is 57 versus 173 for Iceland (EU-27 = 100), a difference of about 204%.
Which has cheaper rent, Bulgaria or Iceland?▼
Bulgaria has the lower housing price level (38 vs 164, EU-27 = 100). Rent is usually the largest single household expense, so it weighs heavily on real affordability.
Does cheaper mean better value in Bulgaria vs Iceland?▼
Value depends on both prices and income; see the affordability figures above.
Source: Eurostat, comparative price levels (prc_ppp_ind) and median equivalised net income Price-level indices, EU-27 = 100, 2024.
Read our methodology - how these indices are sourced and computed.