Pay data, country by country
CostCompare

Netherlands vs Malta

26% dearer than — Netherlands against Malta

Netherlands86.72025
Malta69.02025

On national price levels, Netherlands is 26% dearer than Malta. 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.

CategoryNetherlandsMaltaDifference
Overall consumption (incl. government-funded services)81.162.4 +30%
Food and non-alcoholic drinks98.9112.2 -12%
Bread and cereals90.5104.4 -13%
Meat106.098.4 +8%
Fish93.697.9 -4%
Milk, cheese and eggs100.6123.5 -19%
Fruit and vegetables95.1113.8 -16%
Non-alcoholic drinks119.8124.8 -4%
Alcoholic drinks100.0125.3 -20%
Tobacco160.783.3 +93%
Clothing and footwear93.0101.5 -8%
Housing, water, electricity and fuel129.880.1 +62%
Furnishings and household equipment101.1105.3 -4%
Health139.892.8 +51%
Transport112.982.6 +37%
Communication134.2106.7 +26%
Recreation and culture112.494.5 +19%
Education150.3130.2 +15%
Restaurants and hotels124.688.7 +40%

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.