The Best European Capital Cities To Work In

The Best European Capital Cities To Work In

The Best European Capital Cities To Work In
10th April 2017

When we think about corporate cities in Europe, we think of places like London and Berlin, but are they actually the best European capital cities in which to work?

To find out which of Europe’s capital cities is the best to work in, we've taken the time to take a look at the cost of living index, the average monthly salary, the unemployment rates, the traffic commute time index, and average hours worked per week of 39 European capital cities and, based on all of the data, ranked them accordingly.

So, keep reading to see which European capital cities are the best to work in - you might be surprised!

We took the five different rankings and combined them together to give us a total points for each of the European capitals, giving us a ranking on the best to work in!

Below, we've also put together the individual tables for each of:

  • Cost of Living
  • Average Monthly Salary
  • Unemployment Rate
  • Traffic Commute Index
  • Average Hours Worked
City Cost of Living (Pts) Average Salary (Pts) Unemployment Rate (Pts) Traffic Commute (Pts) Average Worked Hours (Pts) Total (Pts)
Bern 1 39 37 39 35 151
Copenhagen 4 36 33 29 38 140
Berlin 15 28 35 25 36 139
Amsterdam 8 29 29 33 39 138
Minsk 35 4 39 32 21 131
Reykjavik 2 34 38 38 17 129
Vienna 14 26 17 36 30 123
Vilnius 24 14 18 31 32 119
Oslo 3 38 34 6 37 118
Brussels 12 27 23 21 33 116
Chisinau 37 1 36 22 18 114
Luxembourg 9 37 26 18 24 114
Tallinn 19 19 24 26 20 108
Prague 27 21 30 17 12 107
Dublin 10 30 24 8 34 106
Helsinki 11 33 15 15 27 101
Ljubljana 18 23 10 35 15 101
London 6 35 31 2 25 99
Bratislava 23 20 20 20 14 97
Riga 25 13 14 30 15 97
Stockholm 5 32 22 7 29 95
Budapest 26 12 32 14 10 94
Sofia 30 11 21 28 4 94
Madrid 16 24 16 9 26 91
Moscow 20 22 27 1 21 91
Pristina 39 7 2 37 5 90
Warsaw 28 18 19 11 9 85
Skopje 34 5 3 19 23 84
Paris 7 31 12 5 28 83
Bucharest 31 10 28 10 3 82
Rome 13 25 9 3 31 81
Sarajevo 32 8 1 27 12 80
Podgorica 29 9 5 34 1 78
Belgrade 33 6 8 23 5 75
Lisbon 21 17 11 16 10 75
Zagreb 22 16 6 24 5 73
Kiev 38 2 12 12 5 69
Athens 17 15 3 13 19 67
Tirana 36 3 7 4 2 52

Cost Of Living Index

The cost of living in any given city is one of the most important factors to take into account on the basis that everyone needs something left over after bills have been paid to enjoy themselves after a hard week. We took the cost of living index data from Numbeo to showcase how each European capital ranks.

City Cost of Living Index Points
Pristina 26.79 39
Kiev 28.3 38
Chisinau 30.1 37
Tirana 33.46 36
Minsk 33.86 35
Skopje 33.96 34
Belgrade 36.48 33
Sarajevo 37.66 32
Bucharest 38.02 31
Sofia 38.21 30
Podgorica 39.57 29
Warsaw 42.08 28
Prague 43.57 27
Budapest 43.84 26
Riga 47.85 25
Vilnius 47.98 24
Bratislava 48.29 23
Zagreb 49.67 22
Lisbon 50.21 21
Moscow 50.49 20
Tallinn 52.65 19
Ljubljana 58.67 18
Athens 59.08 17
Madrid 62.23 16
Berlin 64.29 15
Vienna 69.42 14
Rome 71.96 13
Brussels 75.32 12
Helsinki 77.82 11
Dublin 79.41 10
Luxembourg 80.36 9
Amsterdam 80.65 8
Paris 82.11 7
London 82.81 6
Stockholm 84.27 5
Copenhagen 87.24 4
Oslo 106.32 3
Reykjavik 115.81 2
Bern 124.9 1

Average Monthly Salary

Of course, whilst this is comparative to the cost of living, the monthly salary is a key decision influencer when choosing to relocate and, once again, we used Numbeo's data to allow us to rank each European capital based upon the average monthly salary.

City Average Monthly Salary (€) Points
Bern 3,517.11 39
Oslo 2,980.65 38
Luxembourg 2,912.78 37
Copenhagen 2,719.87 36
London 2,527.73 35
Reykjavik 2,452.54 34
Helsinki 2,433.63 33
Stockholm 2,387.96 32
Paris 2,368.47 31
Dublin 2,356.49 30
Amsterdam 2,289.23 29
Berlin 2,032.56 28
Brussels 1,992.33 27
Vienna 1,899.77 26
Rome 1,490.28 25
Madrid 1,468.72 24
Ljubljana 1,062.24 23
Moscow 933.3 22
Prague 927.95 21
Bratislava 914.94 20
Tallinn 901.26 19
Warsaw 886.58 18
Lisbon 881.44 17
Zagreb 813.24 16
Athens 705.45 15
Vilnius 669.36 14
Riga 626.68 13
Budapest 597.82 12
Sofia 543.43 11
Bucharest 540.62 10
Podgorica 484.91 9
Sarajevo 432.41 8
Pristina 395.83 7
Belgrade 364.12 6
Skopje 339.87 5
Minsk 332.77 4
Tirana 286.98 3
Kiev 250.11 2
Chisinau 233.89 1

Unemployment Rate

No one enjoys being unemployed and, as such, we took official data supplied by each country to rank based upon the local unemployment rate in the cities.

City Unemployment Rate (%) Points
Minsk 0.90 39
Reykjavik 3.10 38
Bern 3.60 37
Chisinau 3.80 36
Berlin 3.90 35
Oslo 4.20 34
Copenhagen 4.30 33
Budapest 4.40 32
London 4.70 31
Prague 5.10 30
Amsterdam 5.30 29
Bucharest 5.40 28
Moscow 5.60 27
Luxembourg 6.10 26
Dublin 6.60 24
Tallinn 6.60 24
Brussels 7.00 23
Stockholm 7.40 22
Sofia 8.21 21
Bratislava 8.40 20
Warsaw 8.50 19
Vilnius 8.80 18
Vienna 8.90 17
Madrid 18.63 16
Helsinki 9.20 15
Riga 9.30 14
Kiev 10.00 12
Paris 10.00 12
Lisbon 10.50 11
Ljubljana 11.20 10
Rome 11.50 9
Belgrade 13.00 8
Tirana 14.50 7
Zagreb 15.30 6
Podgorica 22.52 5
Athens 23.10 3
Skopje 23.10 3
Pristina 32.90 2
Sarajevo 40.58 1

Traffic Commute Index

There's nothing worse than sitting in traffic, hence why we felt it necessary to include the traffic commute index score from Numbeo when working out which the best European city to work in is.

City Traffic Commute Index Points
Bern 16 39
Reykjavik 20.06 38
Pristina 22.11 37
Vienna 25.72 36
Ljubljana 26.08 35
Podgorica 26.33 34
Amsterdam 26.87 33
Minsk 27.86 32
Vilnius 28.48 31
Riga 28.84 30
Copenhagen 30.09 29
Sofia 30.35 28
Sarajevo 30.4 27
Tallinn 31.83 26
Berlin 31.89 25
Zagreb 32.28 24
Belgrade 32.89 23
Chisinau 33.4 22
Brussels 33.71 21
Bratislava 34.26 20
Skopje 34.3 19
Luxembourg 35.62 18
Prague 35.92 17
Lisbon 36.05 16
Helsinki 36.29 15
Budapest 36.68 14
Athens 36.8 13
Kiev 37.28 12
Warsaw 37.54 11
Bucharest 37.72 10
Madrid 38.22 9
Dublin 38.22 8
Stockholm 39.03 7
Oslo 40.44 6
Paris 41.25 5
Tirana 42.5 4
Rome 46.12 3
London 47.49 2
Moscow 54.66 1

Average Hours Worked Per Week

Lastly; we took a look at the average number of hours worked each week to give an indication as to the work / life balance which can be expected in each European capital.

City Average Hours Worked Per Week Points
Amsterdam 29 39
Copenhagen 32.5 38
Oslo 33.9 37
Berlin 34.4 36
Bern 34.5 35
Dublin 34.6 34
Brussels 35.1 33
Vilnius 35.3 32
Rome 35.5 31
Vienna 35.7 30
Stockholm 35.8 29
Paris 36 28
Helsinki 36.2 27
Madrid 36.5 26
London 36.6 25
Luxembourg 37.2 24
Skopje 37.5 23
Minsk 38 21
Moscow 38 21
Tallinn 38.7 20
Athens 38.8 19
Chisinau 39 18
Reykjavik 39.1 17
Ljubljana 39.2 15
Riga 39.2 15
Bratislava 39.3 14
Prague 39.5 12
Sarajevo 39.5 12
Budapest 39.6 10
Lisbon 39.6 10
Warsaw 39.9 9
Belgrade 40 5
Kiev 40 5
Pristina 40 5
Zagreb 40 5
Sofia 40.4 4
Bucharest 41 3
Tirana 44 2
Podgorica 50 1

At the end of the day, we were surprised by the results, however are happy to announce that, based upon our research, Bern can be crowned 'the best European city to work in.'


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