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    [OC] These European Cities Spend Over 50% of Income on Housing + Food
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    [OC] These European Cities Spend Over 50% of Income on Housing + Food

    [OC] These European Cities Spend Over 50% of Income on Housing + Food

    Posted by shirayuki653

    View 28 Comments

    28 Comments

    1. shirayuki653 on

      This is Part 3 of the USI series and covers the first half of European cities.

      Data sources:

      • Numbeo (1-bedroom rent & food price anchor)

      • National statistical agencies (UK, IE, FR, ES, LU)

      • Glassdoor (BE, NL) for salary estimates where official city-level data was limited

      Index definition: USI = Housing burden + Essential food share (as % of gross income); Housing burden = 1BR rent / median income and food share = simplified essential consumption proxy

      Both components are shown separately for transparency. The index is designed to reflect structural urban cost pressure rather than full household budgets.

      Tools: Python (pandas) for data processing, Canvas for visualisation.

      Note: This covers UK, IE, FR, ES, LU, BE, NL. DACH, CZ, PL and Scandinavia are in Part 4 of the series

    2. Zifnab_palmesano on

      While I do not dosagree with the numbers, I think other Spanish cities such as Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza/Eivissa are missing, because they suffer largely as other cities

      Maybe the plot is made not with all data at hand but to show the range of situations?

    4. elcanariooo on

      So, knowing you can’t really rent or get loans above 33%-ish of your income in France (I’m simplifying a bit), the figures just…. make no sense?

      I mean…. “numbeo” lol

    5. Winterspawn1 on

      Is the median income for the country or the city? Income from a job is typically higher in and near big cities.

    6. Niklear on

      The fact that this starts at stretched is mind blowing. Sadly feels like the whole world is in very much the same situation.

    8. zdzislav_kozibroda on

      Good idea but not a single city east of Berlin. Why make a chart with only half of continent’s data?

    9. monkehh on

      What do the numbers represent? Your figure for rent would be over double the annual rent on the average 1-bed in Dublin and more than the rent on a 3-bed.

    10. Testosteron123 on

      Where is munich, i know we make more money here but at least in the Rental Cost it should pop up, since the lowest is 21%

    11. Error_404_403 on

      Limited to Germany, Spain, France, UK, Netherlands and Belgium. Not all Europe.

      Would be nice to have info on at least capital / major cities of other countries.

    13. The_39th_Step on

      I’m from London and the surrounding area but have lived in Manchester for over a decade. I have a decent job here and life is workable, even if it has got more expensive

    14. BonsaiBobby on

      Very unclear. I don’t understand these data. What is the number inside the bar? How come these absolute numbers are ranked exactly like the percentages?

      In Amsterdam we don’t spend 4000 euro per month on rent. The number for Amsterdam is approximately the median income (48k) but in the food stats it’s 14k. We don’t spend over 1000 euro per month on food. Also strange that food prices are more or less equal across the country, so why is Amsterdam more expensive than other Dutch cities. You should also know that 40% of houses in Amsterdam have rent regulation and cannot exceed 900 euro.

    15. The_Emu_Army on

      The split between Berlin and Dublin is surprising. They’re both prosperous nations (for different reasons) and you would expect the nouveau riche to move to the capital.

      Maybe Berlin has some unused capacity from back when there was an East Berlin?

    16. Molten124 on

      In my opinion this data is a bit misleading. It looks like the extreme cases were rare, while there are whole countries where housing in cities is a luxury. For example, in Poland we have a median income of 5340zł after taxes, while an average price of rent in warsaw is 3750zł([source](https://businessinsider.com.pl/nieruchomosci/koszty-najmu-mieszkan-w-polsce-rosna-najwyzsze-stawki-w-warszawie/2pcrv1v)) which means just housing equals to over 70% of median income.

    17. SkepticITS on

      A few questions and points:

      1. are all of the figures at an individual level, household level, or a mix? Assuming income data is individual, how have you managed to get individual-level data for housing? The average person doesn’t live on their own.

      2. How have you set the thresholds for survivability? Housing and food are both major expenses everywhere, but in the US you then also need to cover a number of things that are either free or subsidised in Europe. Did you use the same thresholds for Europe and the US?

      3. Does housing cost just use the median cost across all types/sizes of housing, or does it hold something constant? Specifically, cities like Paris and Amsterdam are noted for very high density housing and small apartments, significantly smaller than all the Spanish cities.

    21. TheRadishBros on

      Food is quite affordable in UK, which shows just how insane the housing costs are for London to be near top of the list.

      Same with Dublin, to an even greater extent.

    24. ma_tendresse on

      I find this analysis very insightful, and I understand the decision to split the regions in different charts to be able to include more cities while keeping the data readable. Thanks for that!

      That said, I do agree as others have commented that eventually having a chart that includes only the most populous cities for each country and includes all of Europe would be very interesting to see.

    25. sadlittlecrow1919 on

      Really goes to show that the UK housing crisis is mostly just a London housing crisis. Leeds and Manchester saw their populations grow by 8.1% and 9.7% respectively between 2011 and 2021 – higher than London which saw its population grow by 7.7% – but both cities are still a long, long way from being even remotely close to London levels of unaffordable.

      Then you read articles about how new housing construction in London has plummeted to almost nothing while the likes of Leeds and Manchester have built loads of new housing over the past decade, and you start to understand why.

    26. panversie on

      Would be nice to see food and housing split up. I can imagine Spanish people spending more on food in general than Dutch people for example.