Grocery prices in the Netherlands, the one thing that's cheap

Eurostat compares price levels across Europe with the EU average set at 100. For the Netherlands in 2025, two of those figures tell the story between them:

• Overall price level — 120.4. The highest of the ten European countries this site covers, ahead of Austria (119.0) and Belgium (118.1).
• Food and non-alcoholic beverages — 99.4. Below the EU average, and second-cheapest of the ten — only Spain (95.3) is lower.

That 21-point gap is one of the two widest of any country we cover — Greece's runs 21.3 points the other way. Dutch living costs are high, but the extra cost sits in services — Eurostat's services index for the Netherlands is 130.7 — and in housing, not on the supermarket shelf.

Source: Eurostat — Purchasing power parities and price level indices (prc_ppp_ind_1), 2025 values, dataset updated 9 July 2026, read 7 October 2026.

Eurostat breaks food into categories, and the Dutch profile is distinctive. Against the EU average of 100:

• Bread and cereals — 89.9, the cheapest of the ten
• Fish and seafood — 87.3, also the cheapest of the ten
• Vegetables 95.0, fruit 93.5, sugar and sweets 95.1 — all below average
• Dairy and eggs 99.3 and alcohol 99.5 — right on the average

Two categories run the other way: meat at 113.4, and oils and fats at 126.9 and soft drinks at 121.6, both second-dearest of the ten.

Put simply, a basket built on bread, fish, vegetables and dairy is good value; a basket heavy on meat, cooking oils and bottled soft drinks is where the Dutch shop catches up with Dutch prices elsewhere.

A price level index compares what the same basket costs in each country, including taxes. It is not a measure of what a household actually spends, and it says nothing about rent.

Read honestly, the Dutch numbers suggest a budget that is unusually lopsided: groceries close to the EU average, but housing and services — childcare, repairs, eating out, personal services — well above it. Movers who plan on a single "the Netherlands is expensive" multiplier tend to overestimate food and underestimate everything with labour in it.

One cost that doesn't move with any of this is international health cover, which is priced on your age and the level of cover you choose, not on where you live.