Home / Country / Portugal vs Spain
Portugal vs Spain
Price level and homicide-based safety head to head, plus every ICP category both Portugal and Spain publish. Statistics, not reviews.
1Visa-free travelPassport Index open dataset · MIT
Do I need a visa for Portugal or Spain
Tourist entry rules in both directions: a passport from Portugal travelling to Spain, and a passport from Spain travelling to Portugal.
Tourist stays only, from the openly licensed Passport Index dataset — refreshed with each release. Long stays always need a consular check.
2Moving to Spain
2Moving to Portugal
3Climate · capital cities NASA POWER · PUBLIC DOMAIN
Weather and climate: Portugal against Spain, month by month
How warm and how wet each month is, averaged over twenty years. Measured in Lisbon and Madrid — the capital city, not the whole country.
Pinch with two fingers to zoom · double-tap to reset.
Lisbon · Portugal Madrid · Spain
Warmest
August (20.5°) vs July (25.3°)
Coldest
February (12.8°) vs January (3.8°)
Kinder months to visit
Apr–Nov in Lisbon · May–Sep in Madrid
Source: NASA POWER, MERRA-2 monthly climatology 2001–2020, grid cell of the capital · U.S. public domain. “Kinder months” is our reading: 15–26 °C mean and moderate rain.
4bFood price levelsEurostat 2024
Where food is cheaper, Portugal or Spain
EU average = 100 for 2024: above 100 is dearer than the EU, below 100 is cheaper. These are Eurostat price levels, not prices — they say how far apart two countries are, not what a kilo costs.
Source: Eurostat. Reuse is authorised with the source acknowledged; the European Commission does not endorse this site. Purchasing power parities, price level indices by expenditure category (prc_ppp_ind) · EU27_2020 = 100 · 2024, retrieved 20 August 2026. Note: A price level index says how a country compares with the EU average in the same year, not what anything costs. Values above 100 mean dearer than the EU average, below 100 cheaper. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries, and this block is shown only when both countries are covered. Index values are reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation. The headline index beside this table uses the World Bank benchmark of 2021 on a different base, World = 100, so the two must not be read against each other.
3Price level · US = 100
on the World Bank price-level index · gap 6% · Portugal cheaper
5bPay by occupationEurostat 2022
Salary compared: Portugal and Spain
Mean gross monthly pay in euro, 2022, before tax and social contributions. Europe publishes pay for nine broad groups of work, not for named jobs — and these are means, which large salaries pull upwards, unlike the medians in the card beside this one.
Source: Eurostat. Reuse is authorised with the source acknowledged; the European Commission does not endorse this site. Structure of earnings survey 2022 (earn_ses22_21), mean monthly earnings by occupation · mean gross monthly earnings in euro, enterprises with 10 employees or more, all ages, both sexes · retrieved 20 August 2026. Note: These are means, not medians, so large salaries pull them up; they are gross, before tax and social contributions. The survey runs every four years, so 2022 is the latest round. Occupations are the nine broad ISCO-08 groups — Europe publishes nothing finer, unlike the United States. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries. Earnings are reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation.
5Actual pay EUROSTAT
The median wage: half of employees earn less than this, half earn more. Gross monthly pay in 2022, before tax and social contributions.
Spain pays more
Higher median pay — 66% more, and still 50% ahead once local prices are taken into account.
Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses_monthly, 2022) · PPS units are Eurostat’s own price adjustment — full terms in Sources & licences below.
4bEnergy pricesEurostat · measured
Electricity and gas prices in Portugal and Spain
Prices households actually pay, in euro per kilowatt-hour with every tax and levy included, as published by Eurostat for 2025-S2. Both rows are Eurostat figures; only the difference column is ours.
Source: Eurostat. Reuse is authorised with the source acknowledged; the European Commission does not endorse this site. Energy prices for household consumers, bi-annual data (nrg_pc_204 electricity, nrg_pc_202 gas), 2025-S2, retrieved 20 August 2026. Consumption bands: electricity band DC, 2 500-4 999 kWh a year; gas band D2, 20-199 GJ a year; both including all taxes and levies. Note: Prices are per kilowatt-hour for a typical household band, including all taxes and levies, as published. Where a country has not reported the latest half-year, its most recent reported half-year is used and named in the row. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries. Prices are reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation. A dash means Eurostat does not publish that price for the country.
6Three movers, three answersderived from the figures above
The earner
Wages usually track local prices: the 6% gap matters less when the paycheck is local too.
PortugalThe remote worker
A salary pegged elsewhere buys more where prices are lower — here that is Portugal.
PortugalThe cautious
The homicide-based score is 1 points apart, favouring Spain.
Spain8Where this pair sits
Price twins
Portugal’s price zone
Spain’s price zone
nearest price levels worldwide · tap to compare
Same lifestyle, new price
€1,000 in Portugal buys what €1,059 buys in Spain
because the same basket of goods and services is priced 6% lower in Portugal — 64.9 against 68.7 on the World Bank index. The amount is a round sum for illustration, not a converted price.
average across the economy · estimate
Safety ranks · of 84
#12PORTUGAL #8SPAIN
by homicide-based score, safest first
Portugal’s safety zone
Spain’s safety zone
nearest world ranks · tap to compare
categories cheaper, of the 25 both countries publish · widest gap: Health +32%
9Reader verdict
Your call — which one fits you better?
Tap an option — your anonymous vote counts instantly. Votes never feed the indices.
10What the numbers say
The split: cost favours Portugal by 6%, the homicide-based score favours Spain by 1 points. Which matters more depends on whose paycheck crosses the border.
Editor’s note. Averages hide category stories: the widest single gap here is Health at +32%. Budget the move by category, not by the headline number.
Release v2026-08; homicide rates carry their own year per country. World ranks — #12 and #8 of 85 by score.
10bPlan your move
Which one suits you?
Fill in your situation — we score this pair against your numbers, then check the other 81 countries for a better fit.
Guidance from published statistics, not immigration or financial advice — see the disclaimer.
11FAQ
Is Portugal really 6% cheaper?
What does the homicide-based score measure?
Why is there only one page per pair?
Do the two data years match?
12Keep exploring
Close cousins
Greece vs SpainSlovakia vs SpainMalta vs PortugalSlovenia vs Portugal
∑Plan your budget
What your month would cost after the move
Enter what you spend today. Each line is repriced with the ICP ratio for that category — your numbers, our coefficients.
Filling uses average household spending per person in each country, scaled to your household on the OECD-modified scale — the first adult counts as 1.0, every further adult as 0.5, every child as 0.3, because a second person in the same home does not double the rent or the heating. Two adults therefore stand at 1.5 people, not 2.
Where the money moves
Starting figures are actual household spending per person (World Bank, 2025), scaled to your household on the OECD-modified scale and split by typical consumption shares. Category ratios come from ICP 2021. Rent varies enormously by city and district — replace it with the figure you actually pay. Estimate, not advice.
12Compare
Another pair of countries
Both directions live on the same page — order does not matter.
↗Share this comparison
Link it, or put it on your page
The embed shows live figures and links back here. Free to use with attribution.
Preview
13Sources & licences
Sources behind this comparison
Our calculations, not official figures.
Sources: World Bank WDI · ICP 2021 · UNODC via WDI · Passport Index · NASA POWER · Eurostat · BLS · Statistics Canada · release v2026-08
Rights holder: The World Bank · World Development Indicators, PA.NUS.PRVT.PLI · reference year 2025 · accessed 22 July 2026 · data.worldbank.org · licence: CC BY 4.0, reuse subject to the World Bank Dataset Terms of Use. Values are reproduced as published; United States = 100 is the indicator’s own base. Every ranking, gap and comment is a Costely calculation. Note: The World Bank does not endorse this site.
Rights holder: The World Bank · International Comparison Program 2021, measure PX.WL · benchmark year 2021, published May 2024 · accessed 22 July 2026 · worldbank.org · licence: CC BY 4.0 — commercial use permitted, subject to the World Bank Dataset Terms of Use. World = 100 — a different base from the summary index above; the two are deliberately not merged.
Rights holder: The World Bank (distribution); original data provider: UNODC (Intentional Homicide, UN-CTS) · WDI VC.IHR.PSRC.P5 · latest available year per country, marked on the page · accessed 22 July 2026 · data.worldbank.org · licence: CC BY 4.0 — these terms describe the World Bank distribution, not a licence we assign to UNODC data. Rates are reproduced exactly as published, per 100,000 population. Note: the homicide-based score — clamp(105 − 20·ln(1 + rate), 0, 100) — is our construction, not a World Bank or UNODC indicator, and covers intentional homicide only.
Rights holder: Passport Index (Arton Capital) · open dataset · accessed 8 August 2026 · passport-index-dataset · licence: MIT — commercial use permitted with attribution. Codes cover tourist stays only; day counts are reproduced as published. Note: entry rules change frequently — always confirm with the consulate before booking.
Rights holder: NASA Langley Research Center · POWER Project, MERRA-2 monthly climatology, T2M and PRECTOTCORR · averaging period January 2001 – December 2020 · accessed 13 August 2026 · power.larc.nasa.gov · U.S. Government work, public domain — free to use, including commercially. Each figure is the model grid cell containing the capital city, reproduced as published. Note: the capital is not the whole country, and the “kinder months to visit” band (15–26 °C mean, moderate rain) is a Costely reading, not a NASA recommendation. NASA does not endorse this site.
Rights holder: European Union, Eurostat · Structure of Earnings Survey, earn_ses_monthly — median and mean gross monthly earnings, all employees, industry, construction and services except public administration · reference year 2022 · accessed 14 August 2026 · ec.europa.eu/eurostat · reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source, including for commercial purposes. Figures are reproduced as published; PPS values are Eurostat’s own adjustment for price differences between countries. Note: gross pay before tax and social contributions; the survey runs every four years, so 2022 is the latest wave. The European Commission does not endorse this site.
Rights holder: European Union, Eurostat · Structure of earnings survey 2022 (earn_ses22_21), mean monthly earnings by occupation · mean gross monthly earnings in euro, enterprises with 10 employees or more, all ages, both sexes · retrieved 20 August 2026 via the Eurostat dissemination API · ec.europa.eu/eurostat · reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source, including for commercial purposes. Earnings are reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation. Note: These are means, not medians, so large salaries pull them up; they are gross, before tax and social contributions. The survey runs every four years, so 2022 is the latest round. Occupations are the nine broad ISCO-08 groups — Europe publishes nothing finer, unlike the United States. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries. These are means, while the median wage card on the same page comes from the same survey but is a different measure, so the two figures will not match. The European Commission does not endorse this site.
Rights holder: European Union, Eurostat · Purchasing power parities, price level indices by expenditure category (prc_ppp_ind) · EU27_2020 = 100, reference year 2024 · retrieved 20 August 2026 via the Eurostat dissemination API · ec.europa.eu/eurostat · reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source, including for commercial purposes. Index values are reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation. Note: these are price levels, not prices — 100 is the EU average of the same year, so a value of 120 means dearer than the EU average by a fifth, and nothing about what a kilo costs. This measure is shown only when both countries of a pair are covered by Eurostat, which is the EU, EFTA and candidate countries; every other pair keeps the World Bank benchmark of 2021 on the World = 100 base, and the two must not be read against each other. A price level index says how a country compares with the EU average in the same year, not what anything costs. Values above 100 mean dearer than the EU average, below 100 cheaper. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries, and this block is shown only when both countries are covered. The European Commission does not endorse this site.
Rights holder: European Union, Eurostat · Energy prices for household consumers, bi-annual data (nrg_pc_204 electricity, nrg_pc_202 gas) · 2025-S2 · retrieved 20 August 2026 via the Eurostat dissemination API · ec.europa.eu/eurostat · reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source, including for commercial purposes. Consumption bands: electricity band DC, 2 500-4 999 kWh a year; gas band D2, 20-199 GJ a year; both including all taxes and levies. Prices are in euro and reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation. Note: coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries, because the reuse terms do not extend to data about other countries. Prices are per kilowatt-hour for a typical household band, including all taxes and levies, as published. Where a country has not reported the latest half-year, its most recent reported half-year is used and named in the row. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries. The European Commission does not endorse this site.
Rights holder: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · Current Employment Statistics, national — average weekly earnings of all employees, total private, CES0500000011 · retrieved 14 August 2026 via the BLS Public Data API · bls.gov/ces · work of the U.S. Government, public domain — free to reuse, including commercially. The monthly figure is a Costely conversion from weekly earnings. Note: this is an average, while the European figures are medians, so the two are not measured the same way; averages sit above medians. BLS.gov cannot vouch for data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov. The BLS does not endorse this site.
Rights holder: Statistics Canada · Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours, table 14-10-0223-01, vector 79311153 — average weekly earnings including overtime, all employees, industrial aggregate excluding unclassified businesses, seasonally adjusted · May 2026 · accessed 14 August 2026 · www150.statcan.gc.ca · Statistics Canada Open Licence — reuse and redistribution permitted, including commercially, with acknowledgement of source. Reproduced and distributed on an “as is” basis with the permission of Statistics Canada. The published value is weekly; the monthly figure and the conversion to US dollars are Costely calculations. Note: this is a mean, unlike the Eurostat medians. Statistics Canada does not endorse this website.