Three worked monthly budgets
Each line below is either a figure from the dataset or a fixed US reference amount scaled by this country's index for that category. The reference column stays on screen so you can see exactly what was multiplied by what, and swap in your own number where your life differs.
One person, outside the city centre
A single adult renting a one-bedroom away from the centre, cooking most nights, using public transport rather than running a car.
| Line item | How it was derived | In Spain | Same line, US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent, one-bed outside the centre | Market average for a one-bedroom, taken straight from the data | $965 | $1,350 |
| Groceries and household | $400 US reference × groceries index 88 | $352 | $400 |
| Utilities, phone and internet | $210 US reference × utilities index 74 | $155 | $210 |
| Local transport | $120 US reference × transport index 100 | $120 | $120 |
| Eating and drinking out | $170 US reference × restaurant index 70 | $119 | $170 |
| Everything else (clothes, leisure, repairs) | $240 US reference × overall price index 70 | $168 | $240 |
| Monthly total | $1,879 | $2,490 | |
The same basket runs $611 a month less than it would in the United States, or about $7,332 across a year.
A couple, one-bedroom in the centre
Two people sharing a central one-bedroom, two transport passes, a bigger grocery bill and a real restaurant habit.
| Line item | How it was derived | In Spain | Same line, US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent, one-bed in the centre | Market average for a one-bedroom, taken straight from the data | $1,390 | $1,700 |
| Groceries and household | $680 US reference × groceries index 88 | $598 | $680 |
| Utilities, phone and internet | $265 US reference × utilities index 74 | $196 | $265 |
| Local transport, two people | $215 US reference × transport index 100 | $215 | $215 |
| Eating and drinking out | $360 US reference × restaurant index 70 | $252 | $360 |
| Everything else (clothes, leisure, repairs) | $430 US reference × overall price index 70 | $301 | $430 |
| Monthly total | $2,952 | $3,650 | |
The same basket runs $698 a month less than it would in the United States, or about $8,376 across a year.
Remote worker still paid by a US employer
Central flat, no local employer and therefore no local employer health cover, plus the travel and connectivity costs that come with keeping a US job from abroad.
| Line item | How it was derived | In Spain | Same line, US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent, one-bed in the centre | Market average for a one-bedroom, taken straight from the data | $1,390 | $1,700 |
| Groceries and household | $470 US reference × groceries index 88 | $414 | $470 |
| Utilities, phone, internet and a desk | $300 US reference × utilities index 74 | $222 | $300 |
| Local transport | $150 US reference × transport index 100 | $150 | $150 |
| Eating and drinking out | $420 US reference × restaurant index 70 | $294 | $420 |
| Everything else, including travel home | $520 US reference × overall price index 70 | $364 | $520 |
| Private health cover, one adult | Typical private premium in the dataset, not scaled | $90 | Not comparable |
| Monthly total | $2,924 | $3,560 | |
The same basket runs $726 a month less than it would in the United States, or about $8,712 across a year. The US column excludes health cover because the structures do not line up: Employer-sponsored single coverage averaged about $777 a month in total premium, most of it paid by the employer, before deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.
These are models, not surveyed household budgets. They take national price levels and apply them to a fixed reference basket, so they describe the price environment rather than anyone's actual spending. Capital cities routinely run above the national index, second cities below it, and a car, school fees, childcare or debt payments would each add a line that is not here.
Category by category against the US
The overall index hides the spread. The category that comes out best against the US is restaurants at an index of 70; the one that comes out worst is transport at 100, a spread of 30 points between them. Budget from the categories you actually spend in rather than from the headline number: a household that eats out four nights a week is exposed to a different index than one that cooks.
| Category | Index | Compared with the US | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall consumer prices (including rent) | 70 | Cheaper | 30% less |
| Rent | 77 | Cheaper | 23% less |
| Groceries | 88 | Cheaper | 12% less |
| Restaurants | 70 | Cheaper | 30% less |
| Transport | 100 | Similar | within 2% of the US |
| Utilities | 74 | Cheaper | 26% less |
| Location | Spain | United States |
|---|---|---|
| City centre | $1,390 | $1,700 |
| Outside centre | $965 | $1,350 |
| Average net salary | $2,620 | $4,230 |
Rent is the line worth stress-testing first. A central one-bedroom averages $1,390 against $1,700 in the US, and moving out of the centre takes it to $965, a difference of $425 a month before anything else in the budget changes.
How each category ranks across the tracked countries
The table above compares Spain with the United States. This one compares it with everywhere else on this site, category by category, so you can see which line items are a real advantage here and which are simply normal across the countries Americans look at.
| Category | Spain | Median of the set | Rank | Cheapest in the set |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall prices | 70 | 87 | 5 of 15 | Thailand (32) |
| Rent | 77 | 77 | 8 of 15 | Thailand (29) |
| Groceries | 88 | 93 | 3 of 15 | Thailand (64) |
| Restaurants | 70 | 94 | 3 of 15 | Thailand (26) |
| Transport | 100 | 103 | 7 of 15 | Thailand (52) |
| Utilities | 74 | 93 | 4 of 15 | Thailand (17) |
Where Spain ranks in this dataset
Against the 15 countries tracked here, Spain is number 5 from the cheapest, and 10 of them are more expensive. The cheapest in the set is Thailand at 32, the priciest Ireland at 100.
| Rank | Country | Index | vs US | 1-bed, centre | $4,230 of US spending costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thailand | 32 | 67.7% less | $475 | $1,366 |
| 2 | Mexico | 62 | 38% less | $765 | $2,623 |
| 3 | Portugal | 63 | 37% less | $1,200 | $2,665 |
| 4 | Japan | 66 | 34.3% less | $1,280 | $2,779 |
| 5 | Spain You are here | 70 | 30% less | $1,390 | $2,961 |
| 6 | Italy | 71 | 29% less | $1,200 | $3,003 |
| 7 | Germany | 72 | 28.5% less | $645 | $3,024 |
| 8 | New Zealand | 87 | 13% less | $1,112 | $3,680 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 88 | 12% less | $1,640 | $3,722 |
| 10 | Canada | 91 | 9% less | $1,433 | $3,849 |
| 11 | Sweden | 92 | 8% less | $1,206 | $3,892 |
| 12 | United Kingdom | 92 | 8% less | $2,370 | $3,892 |
| 13 | Norway | 99 | about level | $1,642 | $4,188 |
| 14 | Australia | 100 | about level | $1,675 | $4,230 |
| 15 | Ireland | 100 | about level | $2,263 | $4,230 |
What a US take-home packet is worth in Spain
The same dollars buy a different amount of life once the local price level applies. Each card takes a US monthly take-home figure, reprices the identical standard of living at an index of 70, and shows what is left over. Rent share is the central one-bedroom as a percentage of that take-home, next to the same share in the US.
Modest take-home
$3,000/mo take-home
- Same lifestyle costs
- $2,100
- Left over each month
- +$900
- Buys what this would in the US
- $4,286
- Central rent as a share of pay
- 46% vs 57% in the US
US average net pay
$4,230/mo take-home
- Same lifestyle costs
- $2,961
- Left over each month
- +$1,269
- Buys what this would in the US
- $6,043
- Central rent as a share of pay
- 33% vs 40% in the US
Senior take-home
$8,000/mo take-home
- Same lifestyle costs
- $5,600
- Left over each month
- +$2,400
- Buys what this would in the US
- $11,429
- Central rent as a share of pay
- 17% vs 21% in the US
Take-home is the number that matters here, so these figures assume you have already paid tax somewhere. Where that tax is due is a separate question with real money attached. How the Spain tax rules treat Americans →
The same budgets against the pay that usually funds them
An index tells you what things cost, not whether you can afford them. The average local net salary in Spain is $2,620 a month against $4,230 in the US, so the budgets above land very differently depending on who is paying you. The share column is the modelled budget as a percentage of that net pay.
| Household | Budget in Spain | Income assumed | Share of net pay | Same basket, US pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single person, local job | $1,879 | Local average net pay, $2,620 | 72% | 59% |
| Couple, two local jobs | $2,952 | Two local average net salaries, $5,240 | 56% | 43% |
| Remote worker, US employer | $2,924 | US average net pay, $4,230 | 69% | 84% |
A local job also means local deductions. The top personal income tax rate in Spain is 47% and VAT or sales tax runs at 21% on most of what you buy, which is already inside the price indices above but not inside a US gross salary you might be comparing against.
Run your own number for Spain
Put your real take-home in and the comparison reruns against the Spain price level, with and without rent.
A ratio, not a budget: it scales your income by the country's overall consumer price level against the US average. Your actual costs depend on the city and how you live. Rent figures are national market averages for a one-bedroom apartment.
Cost questions about Spain
How much money do I need to move to Spain from the US?
It depends on the permit. The non-lucrative visa requires 2,400 euros a month of passive income in 2026, plus 600 euros for each dependant. The digital nomad permit requires about 2,849 euros a month, 200% of the annual minimum wage spread over twelve months, plus roughly 1,068 euros for a first dependant. Budget another $2,000 to $4,000 per applicant for apostilles, translations, medical certificates, insurance and fees, plus a deposit and first month's rent.
Is Spain cheaper than the US?
Yes, but by less than most people expect. Eurostat's 2025 purchasing power parity data puts Spanish household consumption prices at 91.6 against 133.3 for the United States on an EU27=100 scale, which is roughly 70% of US levels once restated at the September 2026 rate of $1.1622 per euro. Dining out, healthcare and intercity travel are much cheaper, and the whole utility bill, electricity plus heating plus water and refuse, runs about a quarter below the US average at roughly $155 a month. Groceries are only modestly cheaper at around 88%, electricity costs about 70% more per kWh, and Madrid and Barcelona rents now rival mid-sized US cities.
Sources and method
Indices are expressed against a US national average of 100 and reconciled from the sources below. Rent and salary figures are national averages in US dollars. The budget tables multiply those indices by the reference amounts printed in each row; no figure on this page comes from a household survey, and none of it is financial advice.
What these numbers are. The headline figures were re-derived from primary sources during review. Some category indices could not be matched to a published statistic and are reasoned estimates, marked as such in the list below. Where a source entry says a value is derived, estimated or crowd-sourced, that is exactly what it is: no international body publishes a like-for-like index for every category, and private insurance premiums are not published at all in most countries. Rent figures are national market averages, so a capital city will run above them. How the dataset is built.
- Eurostat, Purchasing power parities and price level indices based on COICOP 2018 (prc_ppp_ind_1), reference year 2025, dataset updated 9 July 2026: price level index for household final consumption expenditure (E011) with EU27=100 is 91.6 for Spain and 133.3 for the United States, putting Spain at 68.7% of the US level at 2025 average exchange rates. The 2025 PLIs embed the ECB 2025 annual average of $1.12998 per euro; restated at the 4 September 2026 reference rate of $1.1622 the ratio is about 70.7, which is the basis for the headline col_index_vs_us of 70. On the same dataset for 2024 the values were Spain 91.3 and United States 143.3, a ratio of 63.7, so the narrowing of the gap is an exchange-rate effect — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, price level indices by analytical category (prc_ppp_ind_1), 2025, Spain against EU27=100: food and non-alcoholic beverages 95.3, food 94.9, restaurants and accommodation services 85.4, transport 88.1, passenger transport services 82.5, fuels and lubricants for personal transport 92.3, electricity, gas and other fuels 93.0, health 94.2, clothing and footwear 89.4. These are Spain-versus-Europe figures. Eurostat carries the United States only at the aggregate level (2025: household final consumption 133.3, actual individual consumption 143.4); every per-category cell for the US is empty, so no published statistic gives a Spain-versus-US index for a single category. groceries_index_vs_us 88, dining_index_vs_us 70 and transport_index_vs_us 100 are therefore editorial estimates, not derived numbers, and they are deliberately not a mechanical rescaling of the Eurostat category positions by the overall Spain/US ratio. That arithmetic would give roughly 74 for groceries, 66 for dining and 68 for transport, and it fails in a predictable direction because it assumes the US sits at 133.3 in every category: US food and US motoring are cheap relative to the US overall price level, while US restaurant service, which adds a tip on top of the menu price, is expensive relative to it. The published estimates move each category away from the mechanical figure accordingly. Treat them as informed judgement with an error band of several points, which is a large part of why data_confidence on this page is medium rather than high. The directly sourced numbers on this page are the overall index, net pay, utilities, the tax rates and the visa thresholds, with rent taken from published listing indices rather than an official statistic — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, Comparative price levels of consumer goods and services (Statistics Explained), reference year 2025, published 17 June 2026: methodology and country ranking for the price level indices used above. Note that this article covers 36 European countries and does not include the United States; the US comparison comes from the prc_ppp_ind_1 database entries cited above — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, Annual net earnings (earn_nt_net), Spain 2025: single person without children at 100% of average earnings, gross 35,076 euros and net 27,040.72 euros a year, which is 2,253 euros a month or about $2,620 at $1.1622 per euro — accessed September 4, 2026
- European Central Bank, euro reference exchange rate US dollar: 1.1622 on 4 September 2026, the rate used for every currency conversion on this page; 2024 annual average 1.08238 — accessed September 4, 2026
- idealista rental price report, August 2026: Spain 15.1 euros per square metre per month, Madrid 23.3, Barcelona 20.2, Palma 19.3, Malaga 16.5, Valencia 16.3, Bilbao 15.7. Derivation for a 55 square metre one-bedroom: rent_1bed_center_usd uses the mean of Madrid and Barcelona, 21.75 euros per square metre, giving 1,196 euros or $1,390; rent_1bed_outside_usd uses the national average of 15.1 euros per square metre, giving 831 euros or $965. These are advertised asking prices aggregated across each municipality rather than central districts only, so the central figure is a conservative floor for a genuinely central Madrid or Barcelona flat — accessed September 4, 2026
- Zumper National Rent Report, updated 25 August 2026: US national median one-bedroom rent $1,515, used as the US baseline for the rent index. rent_index_vs_us of 77 is the mean of the two Spanish one-bedroom figures on this page, $1,390 central and $965 outside the centre, divided by that $1,515 median, which gives 77.7. Zumper aggregates its own listing inventory rather than surveying households, so this is market listing data, not an official statistic; no permitted official source publishes a comparable US median asking rent for a one-bedroom unit — accessed September 4, 2026
- INE, Estadistica Continua de Poblacion, 1 April 2026 provisional: Spain's resident population 49,687,120 — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Real Decreto 126/2026 fixing the 2026 Spanish minimum wage at 40.70 euros a day, 1,221 euros a month and 17,094 euros a year, the basis for the digital nomad visa income threshold — accessed September 4, 2026
- Agencia Tributaria, Persona fisica residente en Espana: the 183-day rule, centre of economic interests test and family presumption for Spanish tax residence — accessed September 4, 2026
- Agencia Tributaria, Gravamen estatal (IRPF 2025 manual): state general scale, 24.5% above 300,000 euros, which combined with the reference regional scale gives the 47% headline top rate — accessed September 4, 2026
- Agencia Tributaria, Regimen especial de impatriados (art. 93 LIRPF): flat 24% on employment income up to 600,000 euros and 47% above, for the year of arrival plus five tax periods — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Ley 37/1992 del Impuesto sobre el Valor Anadido, consolidated text in force in 2026, article 90.Uno: 'El Impuesto se exigira al tipo del 21 por ciento', with reduced rates of 10% and 4% under article 91. Link is to the consolidated version; the 15% and 6% rates quoted in the 1992 preamble are the original 1993 rates and are long superseded — accessed September 4, 2026
- IRS, tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026: foreign earned income exclusion $132,900, up from $130,000 for 2025 — accessed September 4, 2026
- IRS, Spain tax treaty documents: the 1990 income tax convention, its technical explanation, and the 2013 protocol amending it — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Convenio sobre Seguridad Social entre Espana y los Estados Unidos de America, signed in Madrid on 30 September 1986 and in force since 1 April 1988 (the US-Spain totalization agreement) — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Sanidad, Convenio especial de prestacion de asistencia sanitaria: 60 euros a month under 65 and 157 euros a month at 65 or over, requiring one year of prior residence and municipal padron registration, excluding the pharmacy benefit — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion, Seguridad Social y Migraciones (Unidad de Grandes Empresas), International teleworkers: the official digital nomad residence authorisation page — accessed September 4, 2026
- Consulate General of Spain in Washington DC, non-lucrative residence visa: 400% of IPREM financial requirement, $140 visa fee for US citizens plus a $13 residence permit fee from 1 January 2026, three-month legal decision period — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion (UGE), Highly qualified professionals authorisation under Law 14/2013: job offer plus degree or three years of comparable experience — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion (UGE), Entrepreneurs authorisation under Law 14/2013: ENISA assessment of an innovative project of special economic interest, with no minimum investment or job creation threshold — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion, Autorizacion de estancia por estudios: duration matched to the course, 100% of IPREM per month in financial means, and up to 30 hours a week of permitted work — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion, Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Union: five-year card for family members of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, fee set at the level Spaniards pay for a national ID card — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, Electricity prices for household consumers (nrg_pc_204): Spain 0.2669 euros per kWh including all taxes and levies, band DC, second half of 2025, which is about $0.310 — accessed September 4, 2026
- US EIA, Electric Power Monthly Table 5.3: US average residential electricity price 18.16 cents per kWh year to date 2026 — accessed September 4, 2026
- US EIA FAQ: in 2022 the average US residential electric utility customer used 10,791 kWh a year, about 899 kWh a month. At 18.16 cents per kWh that is about $163 a month. Quoted as the US electricity-only comparison; the US side of utilities_index_vs_us is the four-item basket in the BLS entry below — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat complete energy balances (nrg_bal_c): Spanish household final electricity consumption 75,158 GWh in 2024, divided by 19,504,800 Spanish private households (Eurostat lfst_hhnhtych, 2024), gives 3,853 kWh per household per year. At 0.2669 euros per kWh that is 1,028 euros a year, about 86 euros or $100 a month. This is used on the page only to explain why Spanish bills are lower than the Spanish unit price implies; it is not the basis for utilities_index_vs_us, which is derived from the INE household budget survey entry below — accessed September 4, 2026
- INE, Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2025 (published 25 June 2026), table 'Gasto por codigos de gasto (5 digitos COICOP 2018)', gasto medio por hogar: electricidad 868.92 euros a year, gas natural por redes 235.36, hidrocarburos licuados 45.51, combustibles liquidos 86.23, carbon 1.65, madera y pellets 16.68, carbon vegetal 0.18, giving the published subgroup 04.5 (electricidad, gas y otros combustibles) total of 1,254.63 euros; suministro de agua por red 234.20, recogida de basuras 49.89 and recogida de aguas residuales 63.45, a water-sewerage-refuse total of 347.54 euros. Combined that is 1,602.17 euros a year, 133.51 euros or $155.17 a month at the ECB rate of $1.1622, and $155.17 divided by the $210 US baseline gives utilities_index_vs_us of 74. The consumption assumption is the actual national average Spanish household (about 2.5 people, all dwelling types and tenures, EPF survey-reported spending, not a modelled apartment). Deliberately excluded: subgroup 04.4.4.1 gastos comunitarios, 602.07 euros a year, the Spanish community charge, because it is the analogue of a US HOA fee rather than a utility. Where a building has calefaccion central the heating and the common water are billed inside that community charge instead, so for those households the like-for-like total is higher than 133.51 euros and this index understates their bill — accessed September 4, 2026
- INE, Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2025, table 'Gasto por subgrupos de gasto (3 digitos COICOP 2018/EPF)': cross-check on the five-digit detail above. Gasto medio por hogar for subgroup 04.4 (suministro de agua y otros servicios relacionados con la vivienda) is 952.47 euros a year and for 04.5 (electricidad, gas y otros combustibles) 1,254.63 euros, against a total group 04 of 11,664.65 euros of which 7,779.22 is imputed rent. The 04.4 figure is larger than the 347.54 euros used because it also contains the excluded community charge — accessed September 4, 2026
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys 2024, Table 2500 (all consumer units, annual expenditure means): natural gas $492.57, electricity $1,832.89, fuel oil and other fuels $125.32 and water and other public services $826.03, a like-for-like four-item total of $3,276.81 a year or $273.07 a month (telephone services, $1,459.68, are excluded from the basket). The utilities index on this site uses a common US baseline of $210 a month for every country so the cross-country ranking is comparable; that baseline is conservative against this BLS measurement, so the Spanish index of 74 understates rather than overstates the saving relative to a real US household — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, private households by household composition (lfst_hhnhtych): Spain 19,504,800 private households in 2024, rising to 19,736,500 in 2025, used as the denominator for per-household electricity consumption — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Ley 14/2013 consolidated text, article 63 (visado de residencia para inversores): the article is shown as left without content with effect from 3 April 2025 by disposicion final 21.1 of Ley Organica 1/2025, de 2 de enero (BOE-A-2025-76). This is the primary confirmation that the 500,000 euro property golden visa is closed to new applicants. Article 76 of the same law sets a twenty-day resolution deadline for Unidad de Grandes Empresas authorisations, with approval by administrative silence, and renewals in two-year periods. Articles 68 to 70 (emprendedores), 71 to 72 (profesionales altamente cualificados) and 74 bis to 74 quinquies (teletrabajo de caracter internacional) remain in force. Checked directly against the consolidated text on 4 September 2026: article 71, as rewritten by disposicion final 5.5 of Ley 28/2022 and amended by article 32.5 of Ley 11/2023, now sets only two modalities, the EU Blue Card and the national highly qualified professional authorisation, and turns entirely on the applicant's qualification. The employer-size thresholds of the original 2013 text are gone; the strings '250 trabajadores', '50 millones' and '43 millones' no longer appear anywhere in the law. Article 71.3 gives three years of validity, or contract length plus three months if shorter, renewable for two years. Article 74 bis confirms that an employee teleworker may work only for companies based outside Spain while a self-employed holder may take up to 20% of professional activity from a Spanish company, article 74 ter the one year of prior company activity and three months of prior relationship, article 74 quater the one-year visa and article 74 quinquies the three-year authorisation renewable in two-year periods — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Real Decreto 1155/2024 approving the Reglamento of the immigration law (in force 20 May 2025): student stay holders may work no more than thirty hours a week, and exceeding that limit is grounds for termination of the authorisation — accessed September 4, 2026
- UNESPA, Social Report of Insurance 2025 (Memoria Social del Seguro 2025, English edition, PDF): 'Health insurance looks after 12.8 million people in Spain' and 'One in four Spaniards has health insurance', with a 2025 breakdown by age and autonomous community. The report publishes no average premium anywhere, so typical_private_insurance_usd_month of $90 (roughly 900 euros a year) is an editorial estimate for a healthy adult individual policy based on market premium levels, not an official statistic. It is the least well evidenced number on this page, it rises steeply with age, and it is a reason data_confidence is medium — accessed September 4, 2026