Europe's best and worst places for value

Key findings

1. Tallinn is the best value city in the data right now: engineers there report a livability score of 74.4 on a cost of living of €17,469 per person per year, about 31% of what living in Zurich costs (€55,716, livability 82). #
2. The best value quadrant is a Central and Eastern European story: 100% of its cities (Tallinn, Krakow, Prague, Belgrade) are in the region, pairing below-median costs with above-median quality of life. #
3. High cost does not buy quality of life in Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, Dublin: all sit above the median on cost and below it on livability. The most-reported of them is Berlin (98 reports, livability 61.3 at €24,379 per person). #
4. Expensive but worth it exists: Zurich, Basel, Vienna pair above-median costs with some of the highest livability scores in the data, so the premium buys something real. #
5. Cheap is not the same as good value: Zagreb, Cluj-Napoca, Lisbon, Bucharest sit below the median on cost and on quality of life. If the goal is savings alone they work; as places to live, engineers rate them lower. #
6. At country level, Czechia leads the value board (livability 91.2 at €19,636 per person), while the most-reported country in the bad value quadrant is Germany: 224 engineers there report above-median costs with below-median quality of life. #