Birmingham vs Edinburgh for couples

Birmingham and Edinburgh are both in the United Kingdom, about 395 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.

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Side by side

Factor	Birmingham	Edinburgh
Country	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
Size	Large: 1 to 5 million people	Mid-sized: 250,000 to 1 million people
Setting	Near the coast	Coastal
Est. cost for a couple	€3,980 a month	€3,847 a month
Tax tier	High tax	High tax
Average temperature	10°C	10°C
Rainfall	869 mm a year	700 mm a year
Safety	56 / 100	56 / 100
Healthcare	74 / 100	74 / 100
Internet (median fixed)	~110 Mbps	~110 Mbps
Main languages	English	English
English	English everywhere	English everywhere
Long-term residency	Possible, with conditions	Possible, with conditions
Self-funded income route	None tracked	None tracked
Visa-free short visits	35 of 198 passports	35 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 €3,847 in Edinburgh.

Taxes

Same country, same tax: the United Kingdom is in our high tax tier.

Climate

Both average 10°C over the year. Edinburgh is drier, with about 700 mm of rain a year against 869 mm in Birmingham (19% less).

Safety

Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 56 out of 100.

Healthcare

Our healthcare score is country-level, so both cities get the same 74 out of 100.

Internet

Our broadband figure is country-level: about 110 Mbps median fixed download in both.

Language

Main languages in both: English. English proficiency is rated the same in both: English everywhere.

Residency and visas

Same country, same rules: long-term residency in the United Kingdom is rated possible, with conditions.

Which one fits a couple

As two cities in the United Kingdom, Birmingham and Edinburgh share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Birmingham is wetter, with 869 mm of rain a year against 700 mm; Birmingham is a large city (1 to 5 million people) and Edinburgh a mid-sized one (250,000 to 1 million people); Birmingham is near the coast and Edinburgh coastal. They are 395 km apart.

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