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Italy vs Romania

49% dearer than — Italy against Romania

Italy72.92025
Romania48.82025

On national price levels, Italy is 49% dearer than Romania. 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.

CategoryItalyRomaniaDifference
Overall consumption (incl. government-funded services)65.838.5 +71%
Food and non-alcoholic drinks101.775.5 +35%
Bread and cereals108.556.0 +94%
Meat105.272.9 +44%
Fish94.483.0 +14%
Milk, cheese and eggs105.0106.5 -1%
Fruit and vegetables103.369.9 +48%
Non-alcoholic drinks81.888.2 -7%
Alcoholic drinks83.995.4 -12%
Tobacco84.484.2 +0%
Clothing and footwear106.987.4 +22%
Housing, water, electricity and fuel93.452.0 +80%
Furnishings and household equipment96.676.7 +26%
Health116.634.2 +241%
Transport95.778.5 +22%
Communication85.752.6 +63%
Recreation and culture93.966.5 +41%
Education90.339.1 +131%
Restaurants and hotels106.968.5 +56%

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

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Published by

Amit Sharma

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