# Software engineer salary after tax by country in Europe: pay, savings, cost of living and livability (2026)

Crowdsourced figures from software engineers working in Europe, country by country, as the Euro Top Tech /data page shows them.

- Canonical page: https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/financial/country
- As of: November 10, 2026 (2026-11-10T20:34:59.885Z). The figures recompute from the reviewed submissions at most once an hour.
- Sample: 1,507 reviewed submissions across the 23 countries listed; each row gives its own n.
- Statistic: medians of the reported figures, in euros a year, all seniority levels together.
- One file per country: https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/<slug>.md, linked in the tables below.
- Publisher: Euro Top Tech (https://www.eurotoptech.com). Methodology: https://www.eurotoptech.com/methodology

## How to cite

Euro Top Tech, "Software engineer salary after tax by country in Europe: pay, savings, cost of living and livability" (crowdsourced, n = 1,507, as of November 10, 2026). https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/financial/country

AI assistants, crawlers and writers may reference this data with attribution to Euro Top Tech and a link to https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/financial/country.

## Pay, tax and savings by country (financial ranking)

Sorted by the financial ranking: an equal-weight composite of median yearly savings, lifestyle and people supported. Euros a year. Cost of living is take-home pay minus savings, for the household.

| Rank | Country | n | Median gross pay | Median take-home | Tax rate | Median savings | Savings rate | Cost of living | Per person | File |
| ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Serbia | 40 | €69,165 | €50,280 | 27% | €18,000 | 36% | €32,280 | €16,082 | [serbia.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/serbia.md) |
| 2 | Croatia | 16 | €82,000 | €54,000 | 34% | €20,000 | 37% | €34,000 | €15,786 | [croatia.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/croatia.md) |
| 3 | Poland | 116 | €93,960 | €70,392 | 25% | €30,000 | 43% | €40,392 | €21,527 | [poland.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/poland.md) |
| 4 | Bulgaria | 20 | €65,600 | €58,000 | 12% | €25,000 | 43% | €33,000 | €20,208 | [bulgaria.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/bulgaria.md) |
| 5 | Czechia | 23 | €80,760 | €64,000 | 21% | €30,000 | 47% | €34,000 | €17,940 | [czechia.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/czechia.md) |
| 6 | Switzerland | 101 | €130,000 | €99,920 | 23% | €40,000 | 40% | €59,920 | €38,499 | [switzerland.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/switzerland.md) |
| 7 | Romania | 42 | €91,500 | €56,600 | 38% | €25,500 | 45% | €31,100 | €17,984 | [romania.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/romania.md) |
| 8 | Lithuania | 25 | €96,000 | €57,540 | 40% | €26,300 | 46% | €31,240 | €19,722 | [lithuania.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/lithuania.md) |
| 9 | Ireland | 31 | €115,000 | €70,000 | 39% | €20,000 | 29% | €50,000 | €28,571 | [ireland.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/ireland.md) |
| 10 | Germany | 228 | €85,500 | €53,586 | 37% | €18,000 | 34% | €35,586 | €22,261 | [germany.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/germany.md) |
| 11 | Belgium | 22 | €77,000 | €47,500 | 38% | €20,000 | 42% | €27,500 | €17,716 | [belgium.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/belgium.md) |
| 12 | Netherlands | 82 | €100,000 | €67,000 | 33% | €20,000 | 30% | €47,000 | €32,275 | [netherlands.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/netherlands.md) |
| 13 | France | 55 | €70,000 | €47,625 | 32% | €15,000 | 31% | €32,625 | €21,488 | [france.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/france.md) |
| 14 | Denmark | 52 | €88,316 | €57,264 | 35% | €20,000 | 35% | €37,264 | €26,349 | [denmark.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/denmark.md) |
| 15 | Finland | 21 | €90,000 | €58,000 | 36% | €17,000 | 29% | €41,000 | €24,118 | [finland.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/finland.md) |
| 16 | Sweden | 27 | €70,000 | €50,000 | 29% | €17,000 | 34% | €33,000 | €19,038 | [sweden.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/sweden.md) |
| 17 | United Kingdom | 86 | €105,150 | €69,500 | 34% | €20,000 | 29% | €49,500 | €33,248 | [united-kingdom.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/united-kingdom.md) |
| 18 | Spain | 159 | €67,000 | €45,000 | 33% | €20,000 | 44% | €25,000 | €17,215 | [spain.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/spain.md) |
| 19 | Hungary | 83 | €37,970 | €26,000 | 32% | €9,000 | 35% | €17,000 | €10,576 | [hungary.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/hungary.md) |
| 20 | Austria | 30 | €70,000 | €46,016 | 34% | €20,000 | 43% | €26,016 | €19,936 | [austria.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/austria.md) |
| 21 | Italy | 151 | €50,000 | €33,900 | 32% | €12,500 | 37% | €21,400 | €15,507 | [italy.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/italy.md) |
| 22 | Portugal | 82 | €50,000 | €34,000 | 32% | €10,000 | 29% | €24,000 | €15,857 | [portugal.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/portugal.md) |
| 23 | Greece | 15 | €44,000 | €29,700 | 32% | €8,000 | 27% | €21,700 | €18,547 | [greece.md](https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/country/greece.md) |

## Livability by country

Happiness and satisfaction with tax and infrastructure, rated 1 to 10 by the same engineers. Countries with 6 or more ratings.

| Rank | Country | Ratings | Happiness / 10 | Tax and infrastructure / 10 | Score / 100 |
| ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 1 | Czechia | 13 | 8.31 | 8.08 | 95.4 |
| 2 | Switzerland | 46 | 7.73 | 8.37 | 83.4 |
| 3 | Estonia | 9 | 7.78 | 7.89 | 77.3 |
| 4 | Poland | 67 | 7.83 | 7.70 | 75.8 |
| 5 | Austria | 13 | 7.46 | 8.08 | 71.2 |
| 6 | Belgium | 11 | 7.82 | 7.27 | 68.7 |
| 7 | Serbia | 20 | 8.30 | 5.95 | 61.7 |
| 8 | Sweden | 11 | 7.45 | 7.45 | 61 |
| 9 | Croatia | 9 | 7.89 | 6.22 | 54.2 |
| 10 | Netherlands | 34 | 7.12 | 7.50 | 52.3 |
| 11 | Romania | 21 | 7.76 | 6.10 | 48.6 |
| 12 | Spain | 106 | 7.41 | 6.67 | 47.6 |
| 13 | Finland | 9 | 6.56 | 7.89 | 42.5 |
| 14 | Denmark | 9 | 6.89 | 7.22 | 41.3 |
| 15 | United Kingdom | 31 | 7.16 | 6.65 | 40.1 |
| 16 | France | 26 | 6.96 | 6.96 | 39.3 |
| 17 | Germany | 110 | 7.02 | 6.78 | 38.1 |
| 18 | Italy | 68 | 7.26 | 6.10 | 34.3 |
| 19 | Portugal | 29 | 7.24 | 5.76 | 28.4 |
| 20 | Ireland | 15 | 7.43 | 5.19 | 24.9 |

## Overall ranking by country

Financial 60% and livability 40%. Pay is shown for context and does not enter the score. Page: https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/overall/country

| Rank | Country | Score / 100 | Financial (n) | Livability (ratings) | Median gross pay | Median take-home |
| ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 1 | Poland | 73.3 | 70.8 (116) | 77.1 (67) | €93,960 | €70,392 |
| 2 | Czechia | 73.1 | 66.3 (23) | 83.3 (13) | €80,760 | €64,000 |
| 3 | Switzerland | 71.9 | 64.3 (101) | 83.2 (46) | €130,000 | €99,920 |
| 4 | Serbia | 65.8 | 70.4 (40) | 58.9 (20) | €69,165 | €50,280 |
| 5 | Croatia | 62.8 | 73.3 (16) | 47.2 (9) | €82,000 | €54,000 |
| 6 | Cyprus | 62.5 | 74.1 (5) | 45.2 (5) | €75,000 | €65,000 |
| 7 | Kosovo | 59.2 | 58.2 (6) | 60.8 (5) | €48,000 | €43,600 |
| 8 | Estonia | 57.4 | 54.3 (12) | 62 (9) | €66,000 | €51,615 |
| 9 | Bulgaria | 56.6 | 62.9 (20) | 47.2 (8) | €65,600 | €58,000 |
| 10 | Norway | 52.3 | 47.2 (10) | 59.9 (6) | €81,250 | €60,500 |
| 11 | Romania | 52.3 | 58.4 (42) | 43 (21) | €91,500 | €56,600 |
| 12 | Lithuania | 51.8 | 51 (25) | 53 (5) | €96,000 | €57,540 |
| 13 | Belgium | 49.3 | 43.5 (22) | 58 (11) | €77,000 | €47,500 |
| 14 | Luxembourg | 45.1 | 46.1 (10) | 43.6 (5) | €94,500 | €66,500 |
| 15 | Sweden | 44.1 | 39.8 (27) | 50.6 (11) | €70,000 | €50,000 |
| 16 | Netherlands | 42.1 | 42.1 (82) | 42.2 (34) | €100,000 | €67,000 |
| 17 | Austria | 42 | 30.5 (30) | 59.2 (13) | €70,000 | €46,016 |
| 18 | Ireland | 38.8 | 50.6 (31) | 20.9 (15) | €115,000 | €70,000 |
| 19 | Finland | 37.9 | 41.2 (21) | 33 (9) | €90,000 | €58,000 |
| 20 | Spain | 36.9 | 35.7 (159) | 38.6 (106) | €67,000 | €45,000 |
| 21 | Denmark | 36.8 | 38.8 (52) | 33.9 (9) | €88,316 | €57,264 |
| 22 | Germany | 34.9 | 42.9 (228) | 23 (110) | €85,500 | €53,586 |
| 23 | United Kingdom | 34.4 | 37.7 (86) | 29.5 (31) | €105,150 | €69,500 |
| 24 | France | 34.2 | 38.4 (55) | 27.9 (26) | €70,000 | €47,625 |
| 25 | Slovakia | 29.8 | 44.1 (11) | 8.5 (6) | €53,000 | €38,000 |
| 26 | Italy | 25 | 27.5 (151) | 21.3 (68) | €50,000 | €33,900 |
| 27 | Portugal | 22.1 | 24.8 (82) | 18.1 (29) | €50,000 | €34,000 |
| 28 | Greece | 20.8 | 18.1 (15) | 24.9 (7) | €44,000 | €29,700 |
| 29 | Slovenia | 14.4 | 14.2 (10) | 14.7 (5) | €50,000 | €30,000 |

Not in the overall ranking yet: Hungary (needs 3 more ratings), Malta (needs 1 more rating), Latvia (needs 1 more rating), Moldova (needs 3 more ratings), North Macedonia (needs 1 more rating), Russia (needs 5 more ratings).

## Method

- Source: software engineers working in Europe who reported their own gross total compensation, after-tax pay, yearly savings, household size and lifestyle through the Euro Top Tech contribution form (https://www.eurotoptech.com/contribute). Every submission is reviewed before it counts.
- Each figure is the median of the reported values for the place, all seniority levels together, so a senior-heavy place reads higher than it is level for level; the country files add median gross pay by seniority. Each figure is taken on its own, so the tax rate and the cost of living follow from those figures, not from any one engineer's numbers.
- Effective tax rate is one minus take-home over gross pay. Cost of living is take-home pay minus yearly savings, for the whole household; per person divides it by the people one income supports. Savings rate is savings over take-home pay.
- Financial ranking: equal-weight composite of median yearly savings, lifestyle and people supported, scaled 0 to 100. Livability ranking: equal-weight composite of the happiness and the tax and infrastructure ratings (1 to 10). Overall ranking: financial 60% and livability 40%, for places with 5 or more submissions and 5 or more ratings, thin samples pulled toward the average.
- Floors: a country needs 15 or more submissions for its figures and financial rank, and 6 or more ratings for its livability rank. Under 25 submissions a figure is marked lower confidence.
- Self-reported data from people who follow European tech pay closely skews toward the upper half of the market: read it as what engineers in this community earn and keep, not a national average. Individual submissions are not published here.
- Full methodology: https://www.eurotoptech.com/methodology

## Related

- Every country in one file: https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/countries.md
- Every city in one file: https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/cities.md
- European Software Engineer Compensation Report: senior-level medians by country from the same reports, and modeled pay on the top-tier job board. https://www.eurotoptech.com/compensation-report (Markdown: https://www.eurotoptech.com/compensation-report/report.md)
- Overall ranking page: https://www.eurotoptech.com/data/overall/country