How we calculate the Region score
Every number on this site comes from official EU/international statistics run through a deterministic formula — no AI, no editorial judgment, no hidden weighting. This page explains exactly how, using the numbers currently in our database (not a fixed snapshot — it updates as our data does).
The formula
Every dimension is min-max normalized to a 0-100 scale among the countries we currently have data for:
score = (value − min) / (max − min) × 100
Example: if the lowest reported value among our countries is 10 and the highest is 50, a country reporting 30 gets 50/100. For dimensions where a lower raw value is better (e.g. mortality rate), the fraction is flipped (100 − fraction × 100) so a high score always means "good," regardless of the metric's direction.
This is computed fresh on every request, directly from the database — never cached, never pre-baked. It's also relative to 27 countries currently loaded, not a fixed EU-27 average — as we add more countries or backfill more history, every score recalculates automatically.
The 8 dimensions we track
One official source per dimension, refreshed by scheduled ingestion jobs. Coverage varies — not every country reports every dimension yet.
House price index, annual rate of change
Source: Eurostat prc_hpi_q
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Rule of Law (Worldwide Governance Indicators)
Source: World Bank GOV_WGI_RL.EST
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Treatable and preventable mortality rate
Source: Eurostat hlth_cd_apr (TOTAL, T, TOTAL, RT)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 exposure
Source: Eurostat sdg_11_52 (PM2.5, PMD, RT)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Renewable + nuclear share of installed generation capacity
Source: ENTSO-E Transparency Platform (A68, year-ahead)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Households with internet access at home
Source: Eurostat isoc_ci_in_h (TOTAL, PC_HH)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Intentional homicide rate
Source: Eurostat crim_gen_reg (ICCS0101, P_HTHAB)
Coverage: 25/27 countries
Climate-related economic losses per inhabitant
Source: Eurostat cli_iad_loss (VAL_A, LOSS, EUR_HAB_KP)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Cost of living metrics
These 15 metrics are deliberately shown separately from the region score above, and are never averaged or ranked. Unlike safety or air quality, where less is unambiguously better for everyone, a lower price, lower housing-cost burden, or higher income isn't objectively "better" for everyone — it's a trade-off that depends on your own situation, so we show the numbers as information instead of scoring them. Occupation earnings (the "Median annual earnings" cards) come from the EU's quadrennial Structure of Earnings Survey, broken down into 9 broad occupational groups (the finest breakdown published for all countries) — this updates far less often than the other cost-of-living figures, so check each card's "as of" date.
Actual individual consumption per capita (purchasing power, EU average = 100)
Source: Eurostat prc_ppp_ind (VI_PPS_EU27_2020_HAB, A01)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Household electricity price (all taxes included)
Source: Eurostat nrg_pc_204 (KWH2500-4999, I_TAX, EUR)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Household natural gas price (all taxes included)
Source: Eurostat nrg_pc_202 (GJ20-199, I_TAX, EUR)
Coverage: 24/27 countries
Housing cost overburden rate
Source: Eurostat ilc_lvho07a (TOTAL, PC)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Median equivalised net income (purchasing power)
Source: Eurostat ilc_di03 (MED_EI, PPS)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Elementary occupations
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Comparative price level (cost of living, EU average = 100)
Source: Eurostat prc_ppp_ind (PLI_EU27_2020, A01)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Managers
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Professionals
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Technicians and associate professionals
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Clerical support workers
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Service and sales workers
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 23/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Craft and related trades workers
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Median annual earnings — Plant and machine operators and assemblers
Source: Eurostat earn_ses_annual (MED_E_PPS, B-S_X_O)
Coverage: 26/27 countries
Tax metrics
These 3 metrics are shown for the same reason as the cost-of-living figures above — as information, never scored or ranked. They measure the tax burden a country's economy carries as a whole (government revenue as a share of GDP), not what any individual property owner or business actually pays — that depends on local rules, income level, and legal structure that we don't have data for. Source: DG TAXUD (the European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union), a separate EU data provider from the main Eurostat statistics used elsewhere on this page.
Personal income tax revenue (% of GDP)
Source: DG TAXUD TAX_TYPE (D51A_C1, PC_GDP)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Corporate income tax revenue (% of GDP)
Source: DG TAXUD TAX_TYPE (D51B_C2, PC_GDP)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Employer social contributions (% of GDP)
Source: DG TAXUD TAX_TYPE (D611C, PC_GDP)
Coverage: 27/27 countries
Known limitations
- 3 other dimensions are missing just a country or two (House price index, annual rate of change 26/27, Renewable + nuclear share of installed generation capacity 26/27, Intentional homicide rate 25/27) — same rule: simply excluded from that country's average, never guessed.
- Several dimensions (e.g. Rule of Law, price levels) only update annually, while the 2-year trend chart on the homepage shows quarters. Within a year, the same value simply carries forward — so a country's line can look flat for several quarters even though nothing was hidden or smoothed.
- Single-year figures like climate-related economic losses are volatile by nature — a €0 value means no major reported disaster loss that particular year, not that the country has zero long-term climate risk.
The region score over time
The homepage trend chart currently uses 8 of the 8 dimensions — House price index, annual rate of change, Rule of Law (Worldwide Governance Indicators), Treatable and preventable mortality rate, Premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 exposure, Renewable + nuclear share of installed generation capacity, Households with internet access at home, Intentional homicide rate, Climate-related economic losses per inhabitant — every dimension with at least one known value for at least one country. Each quarter uses the most recently known value as of that quarter (a forward-filled estimate, not a precise point-in-time measurement); if a dimension's source hasn't published a newer figure in a while (health and air-quality statistics can lag years behind), its line simply stays flat rather than being dropped from the chart. The Y-axis is scaled to the actual range of the displayed data, not a fixed 0-100, so differences between countries stay visible.
What's not included
Listings also show a crowdsourced community score (seller ratings, aggregated by county) and a seller's personal written perspective. Both are clearly labeled as unofficial and are shown alongside — never blended into — the official region score described above.
Prefer the raw numbers? See the raw data table. This page reflects the real state of our database — it updates as our data coverage grows.