Athens vs Durrës for couples
Athens, in Greece, and Durrës, in Albania, are about 521 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules. Durrës leads on cost, tax, safety and healthcare.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset. For Albania, cost, safety and healthcare are country-level estimates from World Bank indicators, calibrated to our reference tables. Source: The World Bank (World Development Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators), CC BY 4.0.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Durrës is cheaper: we estimate about €2,533 a month for a couple living centrally, against €2,941 in Athens. That is €408 a month, or 14%, less.
Taxes
Durrës has the lighter tax load: Albania is in our low to medium tax tier, Greece in our high tax tier.
Climate
Athens is 2°C warmer on average over the year: 18°C against 16°C in Durrës. Athens is drier, with about 426 mm of rain a year against 976 mm in Durrës (56% less).
Safety
Durrës is the safer pick: Albania scores 66 out of 100 on safety, 6 points above Greece (60).
Healthcare
Durrës has the stronger healthcare: Albania scores 64 out of 100 on healthcare, 4 points above Greece (60).
Internet
Close: about 60 Mbps median fixed download in Athens and about 60 Mbps in Durrës.
Language
Main languages: Greek in Athens; Albanian in Durrës. English proficiency is rated the same in both: some English.
Residency and visas
Both are rated comparatively open for long-term residency. The cheapest self-funded income route we track starts at about $4,073 a month in Greece and $385 in Albania. For short visits, 93 of 198 passports can enter Greece visa-free and 93 can enter Albania.
Which one fits a couple
On the factors we measure, Durrës leads on cost (€2,533 against €2,941 a month), tax (low to medium tax against high tax), safety (66 against 60 out of 100) and healthcare (64 against 60 out of 100), and Athens leads on none of them. What our data does not cover can still tip it toward Athens: jobs, family nearby, or simply which one each of you prefers after a visit.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: a partner who wants warmth leans toward Athens (18°C on average), while one who minds the heat leans toward Durrës (16°C), and whoever minds rain will prefer Athens (426 mm a year against 976 mm).
Size differs too: Athens is a mid-sized city (250,000 to 1 million people) and Durrës a smaller one (under 250,000 people).
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Athens, Durrës and 913 other cities for both of you at once.