This Is the Average Salary in the European Union (2025 Update for All Countries)

Have you ever compared your paycheck to someone across Europe and wondered where your money goes the farthest? Let’s check the average monthly wages across the entire European Union in 2025 to answer that questions.

I also consider this data extremely important for those who are looking to move to a specific country in the EU, as it makes it easier to estimate the cost of living or decide if a newly-received job offer is paying your as much as you deserve.

I’ve compiled the latest data on average net salaries across all EU countries for 2025 to help you estimate how much a middle class life would cost per month. To make it easier to follow, I am converting all values to Euros (some still don’t use it).

Average net salary in the European Union by Country

If we are to do the math, the overall average wage in the European Union in 2025 is:

2,057 Euros / Month

Compared to 2024, the average wage has increased by €57/month, following an increase of €150 in 2023, €50 in 2022, and another one of €150 in 2021.

This also reflects in major increases in the minimum salaries in the EU, so if you’re planning to relocate and find a job in an European country, the timing is great!

Last year I estimated that all average wages in the EU would be over €1,000/month, but I was wrong as Bulgaria still didn’t manage to officially get past that mark (although even here salaries have improved a lot).

Next year, we’ll surely see all average take-home salaries in the EU over the €1,000/month for the first time ever.

Important things to know about the monthly average wages in Europe

Some incredible moves can be noted in the above table in terms of salaries. Here are the two most important ones:

• Portugal dropped significantly in the rankings as the country’s salary growth slowed down, while many other countries saw massive increases.
• For the first time ever, Romania is no longer the second-worst paid country in the EU, after scraping by Hungary in terms of average take home salaries.
• There’s a massive drop in average earnings after #10 (France with €2,670/month) – #11 is Italy with €1,990 per month.
• Overall, there are still huge differences between the top and bottom countries: the average wage in Luxembourg is 4.5 times higher than what people in Bulgaria are earning (but the difference was even higher in the past).

But all in all, salaries have seen impressive boosts in the European Union countries in 2025. Salaries in Austria, Cyprus or Czechia have seen huge increases, and there’s just one country left in the EU where the average monthly earnings are under 1,000 Euros. So all in all, things seem to be going in the right direction.

Important note: The economy changes constantly and the research I am doing to gather all this information regarding the average wages in all these countries might end up with slightly incorrect values (as they change from month to month throughout the year).

Take everything with a pinch of salt, as the real average salary in a country might be a bit different than the numbers shared below as they also vary by city and influenced by other factors.

However, for informational purposes, the data above is better than no data at all and compiling it multiple times each year takes me several hours, checking out all the official sources in languages I don’t speak (thank you, Google Translate for that) and sometimes with conflicting or incomplete data.

The numbers above tell you how much you should earn in each country to afford living a decent, middle class life there. You might still make it on less, depending on the country and your living conditions (living solo is usually more expensive than as part of a couple, for example).

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Wrapping up

While the average net salary throughout all countries in the EU is €2,057, 17 of the 27 countries in the Union earn less. Still, things are getting better overall and now you should have a clearer picture on how things stand here.

It would still be great if people living in the various countries of the European Union listed above could confirm the data that I managed to gather – or let me know what the situation is in the countries they know. This will help make this list better and even more useful.

Here are some of the sources that I have used for my research: Eurostat, Wikipedia, Croatia Wise, Romania Experience, Poland Statistics and many other local websites.