Best European Countries for Developers with Families
Where in Europe can you afford to support a family without being too frugal?
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Poland and Serbia are the only European countries where, as a dev, you can have good purchasing power while having a family.
In other countries, people only report comfortable purchasing power when having few or no dependents to support.
That's according to EuroTechMoney.com.
Over there, I ask contributors to rate their lifestyle from 1 to 3:
frugal = 1
comfortable = 2
luxurious = 3
Countries Below the Comfort Line (Score < 1.8)
Countries that report a lifestyle score below 1.8 are:
Romania (1.78)
Netherlands (1.77)
Austria (1.76)
Spain (1.73)
Sweden (1.69)
Portugal (1.69)
Countries Above the Comfort Line (Score > 1.8)
Countries with a lifestyle score above 1.8 are:
Serbia (1.94) - although only few submissions (just 16)
Denmark (1.93)
Switzerland (1.91)
France (1.89)
Poland (1.87)
Germany (1.86)
Italy (1.83)
UK (1.82)
Hungary (1.82)
Family - nr. of people supported with the income
Contributors also share how many people are there in the family, and their share of household expenses.
This allows me to calculate a "people supported" value for each contributor (based on family size and their share of household expenses).
In case the "people supported" value is 1.5, it means that they're supporting themselves + half of someone else.
Good lifestyle but no kids
Countries, among the "good lifestyle" ones just mentioned, with 1.5 people supported or less are:
Switzerland (1.5)
UK (1.5)
France (1.3)
"Family Friendly" Countries (good people supported numbers)
The ones with a decent 'people supported' number are:
Italy (1.8 people supported)
Germany (1.7)
Romania (1.6)
Spain (1.6)
Hungary (1.6)
Very Family Friendly Countries
The ones that are very family friendly:
Poland (1.9 people supported)
Serbia (2 people supported)
Poland
Once again, Poland manages to come out as the BEST all-encompassing option for devs in Europe. It scores well literally on every dimension.
As a dev in a good company in Poland you can:
make good money
pay fair taxes
have great savings
have great lifestyle
support a family
Unbeatable.
Conclusion
Family-friendly, good-lifestyle, good-savings
→ Poland
Devs here can:
Support a family: 1.9 people supported
Have a good lifestyle: 1.87
And good savings: 32.5k euros/year
Family-friendly, good-lifestyle
→ Serbia
(although only 16 data submissions, so it could be a flaky result)
Family → good: 2 people supported
Lifestyle → good: 1.94
Savings → mid: 18k euros/year
→ Germany and Italy
Family → OK/good: 1.7 and 1.8
Lifestyle → good/OK: 1.86 and 1.83
Savings → mid/bad: 20k and 13k euros/year
Good lifestyle + good savings
But bad for families - DINK (dual income, no kids) countries.
→ Switzerland, Denmark and the UK
Family → mid/bad: 1.5, 1.3, 1.5
Lifestyle → good/ok: 1.91, 1.93, 1.82
Savings → good: 38k, 30k, 38k euros/year
→ Lithuania
Few data submissions: 15.
But:
Family → mid: 1.5
Lifestyle → good: 1.87
Savings → very good (highest in Europe): 42k euros/year
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