There’s so much that goes into making a place liveable, particularly if you’re young. Alongside a great art and culture offering, affordable food and drink and decent nightlife, the place you choose to live probably needs to be affordable, safe and happy, and that’s exactly what this new study has set out to investigate.
Travel app Alroix has analysed a bunch of factors across each EU country, from the unemployment rate to rent prices, crime, education and happiness. They’ve even looked into the ‘Big Macs per salary’ index of each place, and they’ve analysed all of that data to rank all 27 countries based on their living conditions.
Recommended: The best cities in the world for nightlife right now.
Topping the list was the Netherlands, which was also recently named the best country for a ‘workation’, and it did well thanks to a solid education index, low levels of unemployment and a strong happiness score of 7.32, the third highest on the list.
In second place was Austria and in third place was Poland, but you can check out the full study here and have a look at the top 10 cities list below. While we’re on the subject of Europe, these are our top picks for the most underrated places and the best budget destinations.
These are the 10 best European countries for young adults
- Netherlands
- Austria
- Poland
- Cyprus
- Luxembourg
- Finland
- Czech Republic
- Romania
- Germany
- Denmark
Did you see that these are the best cities for digital nomads in 2025?
Plus: Croatia’s Hvar Island has made a drastic decision to curb its clubbing reputation.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Travel newsletter for all the latest travel news and best stuff happening across the world.
