Cost-of-living comparison · Eurostat PLI 2024
🇮🇸 Iceland vs 🇨🇭 Switzerland
How the cost of living compares between Iceland and Switzerland - overall and across rent, groceries, transport, healthcare, utilities and dining, weighed against local income.
- Cheaper overall
- Iceland
- Price gap
- 7%
Planning a move? Scale your income from Iceland to Switzerland in the calculator, then save the pair to come back to it.
Cost by category - Iceland vs Switzerland
Iceland - price level by category
Switzerland - price level by category
Side-by-side
| Category (EU-27 = 100) | 🇮🇸 Iceland | 🇨🇭 Switzerland |
|---|---|---|
| Overall cost | 173 | 184 |
| Housing & utilities | 164 | 214 |
| Groceries | 144 | 159 |
| Transport | 136 | 127 |
| Healthcare | 234 | 224 |
| Utilities | 64 | 127 |
| Restaurants | 167 | 171 |
Highlighted = lower price level (or higher affordability). Affordability = median net income ÷ cost index, higher is better.
What the Iceland vs Switzerland comparison shows
On Eurostat's comparative price-level scale (EU-27 = 100), Iceland is the cheaper of the two overall at index 173, against 184 for Switzerland - a difference of about 7% 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 Iceland or Switzerland cheaper to live in?▼
Iceland is cheaper overall, its Eurostat cost-of-living index is 173 versus 184 for Switzerland (EU-27 = 100), a difference of about 7%.
Which has cheaper rent, Iceland or Switzerland?▼
Iceland has the lower housing price level (164 vs 214, EU-27 = 100). Rent is usually the largest single household expense, so it weighs heavily on real affordability.
Does cheaper mean better value in Iceland vs Switzerland?▼
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.