Pay data, country by country
CostCompare

Latvia vs Romania

28% dearer than — Latvia against Romania

Latvia62.42025
Romania48.82025

On national price levels, Latvia is 28% 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.

CategoryLatviaRomaniaDifference
Overall consumption (incl. government-funded services)51.738.5 +34%
Food and non-alcoholic drinks105.475.5 +40%
Bread and cereals102.356.0 +83%
Meat81.772.9 +12%
Fish106.583.0 +28%
Milk, cheese and eggs114.4106.5 +7%
Fruit and vegetables102.969.9 +47%
Non-alcoholic drinks129.888.2 +47%
Alcoholic drinks136.895.4 +43%
Tobacco78.384.2 -7%
Clothing and footwear102.287.4 +17%
Housing, water, electricity and fuel55.052.0 +6%
Furnishings and household equipment93.376.7 +22%
Health59.534.2 +74%
Transport83.278.5 +6%
Communication93.952.6 +79%
Recreation and culture91.566.5 +38%
Education66.439.1 +70%
Restaurants and hotels90.968.5 +33%

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.