Pay data, country by country
CostCompare

Ireland vs Portugal

57% dearer than — Ireland against Portugal

Ireland102.12025
Portugal64.92025

On national price levels, Ireland is 57% dearer than Portugal. Both figures use the United States as 100.

Where the difference actually sits

A single number hides the interesting part. These are the categories Eurostat prices for both countries.

CategoryIrelandPortugalDifference
Overall consumption (incl. government-funded services)94.657.0 +66%
Food and non-alcoholic drinks114.5101.5 +13%
Bread and cereals116.5102.5 +14%
Meat99.987.9 +14%
Fish105.291.0 +16%
Milk, cheese and eggs111.2107.5 +3%
Fruit and vegetables109.098.5 +11%
Non-alcoholic drinks140.4113.2 +24%
Alcoholic drinks197.6109.1 +81%
Tobacco258.685.2 +204%
Clothing and footwear100.293.5 +7%
Housing, water, electricity and fuel187.380.1 +134%
Furnishings and household equipment110.898.9 +12%
Health178.786.6 +106%
Transport108.789.2 +22%
Communication139.8115.6 +21%
Recreation and culture113.485.9 +32%
Education119.572.0 +66%
Restaurants and hotels129.375.5 +71%

SOURCE·Eurostat — purchasing power parities (prc_ppp_ind)·Price level indices by consumption category, published on an EU27=100 basis and rebased here to US=100. CC BY 4.0.·REVIEWED AUG 2026

Before you use this to decide anything

  • These are national averages. Comparing two capital cities is a different question and this data cannot answer it.
  • Price level is only half of the decision. What matters is prices relative to what you would earn — see what the job pays in each country on PayLens.
  • The figures are indices, not prices. Nothing here is a quote for rent or groceries.

How the price level is worked out

  1. The World Bank publishes a purchasing power parity for household consumption — how much local currency buys the same basket as one US dollar — and the official market exchange rate for the same year.
  2. The price level is simply PPP ÷ exchange rate × 100. If a basket needs 1.50 New Zealand dollars per US dollar of purchasing power but the market hands you 1.65 New Zealand dollars for that dollar, New Zealand's prices sit at 1.50 ÷ 1.65 = 91% of the US level.
  3. Nothing is modelled, smoothed or estimated. You can reproduce every number on this site from two public figures.
  4. Where Eurostat also publishes a price level for the same country and year, the two are compared and the gap is printed — including when they disagree.

Full methodology →

SOURCE·World Bank — International Comparison Program·PPP conversion factor for household final consumption, and the official market exchange rate. CC BY 4.0.·REVIEWED AUG 2026

SOURCE·World Bank ICP PPPs + Eurostat price level indices·price levels derived as PPP ÷ exchange rate, see method·REVIEWED AUG 2026

See what every site in this family answers

Published by

Amit Sharma

Auckland real-estate agent and marketer. Builds free, sourced data tools.