Norway is 44% more expensive than the rest of Europe

The price level in Norway was 44% above the EU average in 2019. Only Iceland was more expensive than Norway, with prices that are 59% above the average level.

Norway’s closest Nordic neighbors, Denmark and Sweden, had prices that were 41% and 23% above the average level of goods and services in the EU, respectively, according to Statistics Norway (SSB).

The recently published figures from the European Purchasing Power Survey also show that Norway’s relative gross domestic product (GDP) per capita fell by eight percentage points to 47% above the EU average in 2019.

Thus, Norway is still in fourth place in Europe in terms of GDP per capita, a position it has held since 2015. 

Luxembourg, Ireland, and Switzerland are at the top of the list, while Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina are at the bottom.

Broader context for GDP per capita decline

The relative decline in GDP per capita is not due to a decline in Norway’s total GDP – which, on the contrary, rose slightly from 2018 to 2019 – but due to conditions in some of the other countries.

In Luxembourg, for example, a large proportion of the country’s workforce consists of foreign commuters. 

Thus, they contribute to Luxembourg’s GDP but are not included in the population on which GDP per capita is based.

In Ireland, the figures are affected by the fact that, for tax purposes, it is advantageous for multinational companies to establish themselves there, but the income of those companies mainly goes out of the country.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today