Cost-of-living comparison · Eurostat PLI 2024

🇱🇻 Latvia vs 🇱🇹 Lithuania

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

Cheaper overall
Latvia
Better value
Latvia
Price gap
1%

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

Cost by category - Latvia vs Lithuania

Latvia - price level by category

Overall cost77Housing & utilities55Groceries105Transport83Healthcare60Utilities91Restaurants91

Lithuania - price level by category

Overall cost78Housing & utilities60Groceries101Transport82Healthcare67Utilities73Restaurants86

Side-by-side

Category (EU-27 = 100) 🇱🇻 Latvia 🇱🇹 Lithuania
Overall cost 77 78
Housing & utilities 55 60
Groceries 105 101
Transport 83 82
Healthcare 60 67
Utilities 91 73
Restaurants 91 86
Affordability (income ÷ cost) 18113 17880

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

What the Latvia vs Lithuania comparison shows

On Eurostat's comparative price-level scale (EU-27 = 100), Latvia is the cheaper of the two overall at index 77, against 78 for Lithuania - a difference of about 1% 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, Latvia 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 Latvia or Lithuania cheaper to live in?

Latvia is cheaper overall, its Eurostat cost-of-living index is 77 versus 78 for Lithuania (EU-27 = 100), a difference of about 1%.

Which has cheaper rent, Latvia or Lithuania?

Latvia has the lower housing price level (55 vs 60, EU-27 = 100). Rent is usually the largest single household expense, so it weighs heavily on real affordability.

Does cheaper mean better value in Latvia vs Lithuania?

Not always. Adjusted for median net income, Latvia 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.