Basel vs Luxembourg for couples
Basel, in Switzerland, and Luxembourg are about 252 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. Basel leads on tax and internet speed; Luxembourg on cost 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.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Luxembourg is cheaper: we estimate about €4,187 a month for a couple living centrally, against €4,629 in Basel. That is €442 a month, or 10%, less.
Taxes
Basel has the lighter tax load: Switzerland is in our low to medium tax tier, Luxembourg in our high tax tier.
Climate
Basel is 1°C warmer on average over the year: 12°C against 11°C in Luxembourg. Basel is drier, with about 745 mm of rain a year against 832 mm in Luxembourg (10% less).
Safety
Close: Switzerland scores 78 out of 100 on safety and Luxembourg 80.
Healthcare
Luxembourg has the stronger healthcare: Luxembourg scores 82 out of 100 on healthcare, 7 points above Switzerland (75).
Internet
Basel has faster home internet: about 230 Mbps median fixed download against about 150 Mbps in Luxembourg.
Language
Main languages: German, French, Italian in Basel; Luxembourgish, French, German in Luxembourg. English proficiency is rated the same in both: good English.
Residency and visas
Both are rated possible, with conditions for long-term residency for people from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. The cheapest self-funded income route we track starts at about $2,178 a month in Switzerland and $3,221 in Luxembourg. Citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights in both. For short visits, 93 of 198 passports can enter Switzerland visa-free and 93 can enter Luxembourg.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts tax (low to medium tax against high tax) and internet speed (230 Mbps against 150 Mbps) first, Basel comes out ahead. If the other cares more about cost (€4,187 against €4,629 a month) and healthcare (82 against 75 out of 100), Luxembourg does.
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