Cost-of-living comparison · Eurostat PLI 2024

🇩🇰 Denmark vs 🇱🇺 Luxembourg

How the cost of living compares between Denmark and Luxembourg - overall and across rent, groceries, transport, healthcare, utilities and dining, weighed against local income.

Cheaper overall
Denmark
Better value
Luxembourg
Price gap
6%

Planning a move? Scale your income from Denmark to Luxembourg in the calculator, then save the pair to come back to it.

Cost by category - Denmark vs Luxembourg

Denmark - price level by category

Overall cost143Housing & utilities186Groceries120Transport125Healthcare142Utilities115Restaurants148

Luxembourg - price level by category

Overall cost151Housing & utilities178Groceries125Transport96Healthcare178Utilities76Restaurants124

Side-by-side

Category (EU-27 = 100) 🇩🇰 Denmark 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
Overall cost 143 151
Housing & utilities 186 178
Groceries 120 125
Transport 125 96
Healthcare 142 178
Utilities 115 76
Restaurants 148 124
Affordability (income ÷ cost) 25345 33209

Highlighted = lower price level (or higher affordability). Affordability = median net income ÷ cost index, higher is better.

What the Denmark vs Luxembourg comparison shows

On Eurostat's comparative price-level scale (EU-27 = 100), Denmark is the cheaper of the two overall at index 143, against 151 for Luxembourg - a difference of about 6% 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.

Price is only half the story. Measured against median net income, Luxembourg offers the better value of the two, a typical income there stretches further once local prices are taken into account. The cheaper country is not automatically the one where you live best, which is why affordability, not the headline price level, is the number to anchor on.

Frequently asked questions

Is Denmark or Luxembourg cheaper to live in?

Denmark is cheaper overall, its Eurostat cost-of-living index is 143 versus 151 for Luxembourg (EU-27 = 100), a difference of about 6%.

Which has cheaper rent, Denmark or Luxembourg?

Luxembourg has the lower housing price level (178 vs 186, EU-27 = 100). Rent is usually the largest single household expense, so it weighs heavily on real affordability.

Does cheaper mean better value in Denmark vs Luxembourg?

Not always. Adjusted for median net income, Luxembourg offers the better value, a typical income there stretches furthest against local prices. The cheaper country is not automatically the one where you live best, because incomes differ too.

Source: Eurostat, comparative price levels (prc_ppp_ind) and median equivalised net income Price-level indices, EU-27 = 100, 2024.