Hungary’s Standard Of Living Is Still Well Below EU Average

  • 27 Dec 2018 6:58 AM
  • Hungary Today
Hungary’s Standard Of Living Is Still Well Below EU Average
According to data from 2017 published on Thursday by Eurostat, the standard of living in Hungary is still well below the EU average. When it comes to consumption, Bulgaria is the only country performing worse.

The most important and common indicator of a countries’ level of economic welfare, the GDP per capita, shows that out of the EU’s 28 countries, Hungary is listed at 23rd (68% of the EU average).

Bulgaria is ranked last and only Croatia (62%), Romania (63%), Latvia (67%) and Greece (67%) are behind Hungary. Poland (70%), Slovakia (76%), Slovenia (85%) and Austria (127%) are ahead of the rest of the region.

The situation appears even worse if the Actual Individual Consumption (AIC)—a more accurate method for comparing the relative welfare of consumers across various countries—is counted.

The only EU country ranked behind Hungary (62% of EU average) in consumption is Bulgaria (54%), as Croatia’s percentage equals Hungary’s. The rest of the countries in the EU, including Poland (76%), Romania (68%), Slovakia (76%), Slovenia (77%) and Austria (117%), precede Hungary.

Both lists are expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) which eliminates price level differences.

Luxembourg heads both lists, and interestingly, when analyzing the data from the last three years, Romania shows the highest rate of improvement. In addition, all five of the Balkan countries examined—Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro—are well behind Hungary.

  • How does this content make you feel?

XpatLoop Media Partner

Hungary Today

Online since 2014, this source states its aim as "to provide a complete, unbiased picture of Hungary”. It continues by acknowledging this “does not necessarily mean that our writers do not have their own opinions, sometimes reflected to a degree in the articles they publish”, and it's really worth readers keeping that in mind. Another stated aim is to become ‘the leading English-language news portal of Hungary’, a position held for 20 years by good old independent XpatLoop! Still our team has no issue with positively highlighting one or two useful articles published by Hungary Today here with permission for your interest.