The purchasing power of the Luxembourgers remains high

Since January 1, 2025, the 27 EU countries have been in national minimum wages, whereby Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden are the exception.

As the EU statistics authority Eurostat announced on Thursday, the minimum wages in ten EU countries were below 1,000 euros per month in January 2025, in six other countries they were between 1,000 euros and 1,500 euros per month, and in another six layers over 1,500 euros per month. Luxembourg is named as the leader at 2,638 euros.

Lower differences when you look at the price level

The data show that the highest minimum wage in the EU countries is 4.8 times the lowest. « However, the differences in the minimum wages in the individual countries are much lower if you take the differences in the price level into account, » said Eurostat. Prices of the respective countries take into account the highest minimum wage in Luxembourg, so 2.3 times the lowest in Bulgaria. It should also be noted that less residents in Luxembourg are paid according to minimum wages, but above all cross -border commuters.

An investigation by the market research institute GfK shows that in the EU in Luxembourg in 2014 the highest purchasing power was, seen across Europe. Purchasing power refers to the net income of private households, which is available for consumption expenditure, which also includes rents, insurance companies and credit rates.

The average per capita purchasing power in Europe rose to 18,768 euros in 2024. For 2024, Europeans had a total of around 12.9 trillion euros available to spend on food, living, living, services, energy costs, private pension, insurance, vacation, mobility or even consumption requests.

More than twice the average

The Liechtensteiners have a per capita buyer of 70,180 euros, which corresponds to more than 3.7 times the European average. Switzerland and Luxembourg follow in the ranks two and three. While the Swiss per capita buyer is 2.8 times as high with 52,566 euros as that of the average European, the Luxembourgers have an available net income of 41,785 euros per capita. This means that they are more than 2.2 times above the average in Europe.

Luxembourg has a high price level for living and food. But while real estate prices rose in most EU countries, the house price index in Luxembourg decreased from 2023 to 2024. For a one-room apartments in capitals or metropolitan areas, Luxembourg was located in 8th place behind the leaders London (not EU) or Amsterdam (EU) with 1,540 euros. As far as food prices are concerned, they are high in Luxembourg, but the percentage of net wages is low compared to other countries.

Public transport also plays a role when it comes to living costs. A monthly ticket in Ireland costs 115 euros, while in Romania only 13.06 euros. Public transport is free in Luxembourg. Prices at the petrol stations are also among the lowest in Europe.