Birmingham vs Dublin for couples

Birmingham, in the United Kingdom, and Dublin, in Ireland, are about 307 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. Birmingham leads on healthcare; Dublin on safety and internet speed.

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Side by side

Factor	Birmingham	Dublin
Country	United Kingdom	Ireland
Size	Large: 1 to 5 million people	Large: 1 to 5 million people
Setting	Near the coast	Coastal
Est. cost for a couple	€3,980 a month	€4,127 a month
Tax tier	High tax	High tax
Average temperature	10°C	11°C
Rainfall	869 mm a year	761 mm a year
Safety	56 / 100	60 / 100
Healthcare	74 / 100	70 / 100
Internet (median fixed)	~110 Mbps	~130 Mbps
Main languages	English	English, Irish
English	English everywhere	English everywhere
Long-term residency	Possible, with conditions	Possible, with conditions
Self-funded income route	None tracked	From $4,850 a month
Visa-free short visits	35 of 198 passports	82 of 198 passports

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

Close on cost: we estimate about €3,980 a month for a couple living centrally in Birmingham and €4,127 in Dublin.

Taxes

A tie: the United Kingdom and Ireland both sit in our high tax tier.

Climate

Dublin is 1°C warmer on average over the year: 11°C against 10°C in Birmingham. Dublin is drier, with about 761 mm of rain a year against 869 mm in Birmingham (12% less).

Safety

Dublin is the safer pick: Ireland scores 60 out of 100 on safety, 4 points above the United Kingdom (56).

Healthcare

Birmingham has the stronger healthcare: the United Kingdom scores 74 out of 100 on healthcare, 4 points above Ireland (70).

Internet

Dublin has faster home internet: about 130 Mbps median fixed download against about 110 Mbps in Birmingham.

Language

Main languages: English in Birmingham; English, Irish in Dublin. English proficiency is rated the same in both: English everywhere.

Residency and visas

Both are rated possible, with conditions for long-term residency for people from outside the UK and Ireland (Common Travel Area). Ireland has a self-funded route from about $4,850 a month in income; we track no income-based route for the United Kingdom. Citizens of the UK and Ireland (Common Travel Area) have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights in both. For short visits, 35 of 198 passports can enter the United Kingdom visa-free and 82 can enter Ireland.

Which one fits a couple

If one of you puts healthcare (74 against 70 out of 100) first, Birmingham comes out ahead. If the other cares more about safety (60 against 56 out of 100) and internet speed (130 Mbps against 110 Mbps), Dublin does.

Both are large cities, but Birmingham is near the coast and Dublin is coastal.

OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Birmingham, Dublin and 913 other cities for both of you at once.

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