Cost-of-living comparison · Eurostat PLI 2024

🇬🇷 Greece vs 🇸🇰 Slovakia

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

Cheaper overall
Slovakia
Better value
Slovakia
Price gap
2%

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

Cost by category - Greece vs Slovakia

Greece - price level by category

Overall cost83Housing & utilities71Groceries106Transport90Healthcare82Utilities88Restaurants86

Slovakia - price level by category

Overall cost81Housing & utilities81Groceries83Transport88Healthcare72Utilities70Restaurants91

Side-by-side

Category (EU-27 = 100) 🇬🇷 Greece 🇸🇰 Slovakia
Overall cost 83 81
Housing & utilities 71 81
Groceries 106 83
Transport 90 88
Healthcare 82 72
Utilities 88 70
Restaurants 86 91
Affordability (income ÷ cost) 14096 16017

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

What the Greece vs Slovakia comparison shows

On Eurostat's comparative price-level scale (EU-27 = 100), Slovakia is the cheaper of the two overall at index 81, against 83 for Greece - a difference of about 2% 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, Slovakia 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 Greece or Slovakia cheaper to live in?

Slovakia is cheaper overall, its Eurostat cost-of-living index is 81 versus 83 for Greece (EU-27 = 100), a difference of about 2%.

Which has cheaper rent, Greece or Slovakia?

Greece has the lower housing price level (71 vs 81, EU-27 = 100). Rent is usually the largest single household expense, so it weighs heavily on real affordability.

Does cheaper mean better value in Greece vs Slovakia?

Not always. Adjusted for median net income, Slovakia 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.