The cost of living suffocates Europe

BrusselsThe general strike called this Wednesday in the Spanish state is expected to gather thousands of people to protest the cost of living, with special emphasis on the price of housing. But the unrest behind it is shared beyond the border. The feeling of suffocation in the face of an unexpected bill, the race against time to save faster than inflation rises, the frustration before a supermarket shelf with soaring prices, and the uncertainty of a truncated future run through all of Europe. And this unrest has crystallized into mobilizations across the continent.

The wave has splashed into France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Germany, where massive mobilizations have been seen over the last few weeks. The degradation of the education system was the seed of the most powerful movement so far, that of France, and housing, the price of fuel, or working conditions have also been the trigger for other mobilizations. But all of them had a common denominator behind them: the cost of living.

The muscle of the protests is massive and the solidarity between them is also growing. This is noted by the image of Alexis Tsipras, former Greek prime minister and symbol of the fight against austerity during the 2008 crisis, demonstrating alongside French students this Thursday. Along these lines, the majority of mobilized states—to which the United Kingdom and Greece have joined—have agreed on coordinated protests next weekend. The call, promoted by the Confederation of Tenants' Unions at a meeting in Paris, will bring together labor unions, housing rights organizations, and social and climate movements, among which are the yellow vests and the French student union Union Syndicale Lycéenne.

Why now?

The energy shock caused by the war in Iran has accentuated a trend that was already long-standing. In the last ten years, the cost of living has increased by more than 40% in the European Union as a whole. And the price of housing has skyrocketed by 70%. According to data from Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Commission, between 2015 and September 2026, the cost of living has increased by 41.1%. And of this increase, 3.5 points occurred during the first nine months of 2026.

The increase in prices is measured with the CPI, an indicator that measures the cost of living for families based on the price of various consumer goods. But if, within this basket, we look at the price of food, housing, and utilities –elements that are unavoidable for households with less purchasing power, as they cannot do without them like they can with leisure, for example–, the growth is even more pronounced. The part of the shopping basket that corresponds to food has grown by 43.8% and the one that corresponds to housing and utilities –which include electricity and gas– has become 51.3% more expensive.

Inflation, however, has not been distributed homogeneously. While Nordic countries (Denmark +19.8%, Sweden +21.5%, Finland +21.8%) and southern countries (Greece +17.3%, Italy +22.1%, France +23.9%) have maintained a more moderate cumulative inflation, eastern countries have borne the brunt. For example, in Hungary and Romania prices have grown by more than 60%, and in Estonia, Lithuania and Bulgaria, they have exceeded 50%.

The great gap: wages and housing

While in the eurozone as a whole wages have managed to dodge inflation – with a cumulative increase of 44% since 2015 compared to 41.2% for general inflation –, the great gap appears in the case of housing. The price of real estate has increased 1.6 times that of wages. This means that housing is swallowing an ever-larger portion of European household income: while salaries have grown by 44% in the last period, housing prices have soared by 71%. If in 2015 the average household in Europe allocated 30% of their salary to cover the mortgage or rent, today they need to sacrifice almost 36% of their payroll to maintain the same roof. This imbalance stifles the saving capacity of families and makes the cost of housing the main driver of impoverishment in the European Union.

The gap between wages and roofs, however, does not affect all community members equally, but rather draws a two-speed European map where Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries get the worst of it. According to Eurostat data, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic top the list of states where the distance between salaries and real estate is greatest. In some of these states, the price of real estate has even doubled or tripled since 2015 and has far outpaced the rate of local payrolls.