Which EU Country Has The Lowest Cost Of Living For Retirees & Digital Nomads?

You may have vacationed in Spain before, or are planning on traveling there as a digital nomad. The good news is that the country offers the lowest cost of living in Europe, making it ideal for retirees and digital nomads. Read on to find out which European countries appeared in the top five.

Spain offers the lowest cost of living in Europe

With the COVID-19 pandemic, record-breaking heat and droughts, everyone is finding the cost of living way too high. Meanwhile, in the US, everything from food to housing has risen, while the same can be said of the United Kingdom. The latter reached 11.1 percent in 2022, which is a 41-year high.

If you have been dreaming of moving to the sun of Spain, now is the ideal time, as it has just been revealed to offer the lowest cost of living in Europe.

Property Guides, a website that helps people purchase property abroad, released its Cost of Living Overseas Index in January. The company analyzed the cost of living across 13 European countries compared to the UK. Meanwhile, this has revealed that Spain is the best place to be for those looking for a lower cost of living while enjoying all the benefits of this beautiful country (and its weather!).

Meanwhile, although the research was compared to UK prices, the results would clearly also benefit American expats or digital nomads.

How were the results achieved?

Researchers compared everyday living expenses to offer a realistic view of what living in, and not just visiting, a country really costs. They referred to this as a basket of goods and services. Meanwhile, the basket included everything from the cost of a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk, as well as the cost of setting up a new home, local gas prices, and even the cost of a Netflix subscription – which varies from country to country.

To give an idea of the difference, the researchers wrote in their findings:

To put that into context for UK buyers, the same ‘basket of goods’ that cost £1,996 (about $2,500) in the UK costs just £1,295 (about $1,621) in Spain.

Moreover, the researchers also found that basic grocery items in Spain, including apples, bread, butter, chocolate, milk, dog food, chocolate and laundry detergent were far cheaper than in the other European nations.

“It probably comes as no surprise that the same basket of supermarket essentials costs 53 percent more in the U.K. than in Spain,” the researchers explained. “Most notably, dog food, gin, and dark chocolate are more than double the price in the UK as compared to Spain.”

While Spain came up as No. 1, Italy was found to have the second cheapest cost of living, closely followed by Portugal, Greece and Germany.

Readers can find out where all the EU nations included in the research fell, as well as the full cost of living report on the Property Guides website.