Birmingham vs Utrecht for couples

Birmingham, in the United Kingdom, and Utrecht, in the Netherlands, are about 479 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. Utrecht leads on cost, safety, healthcare and internet speed.

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Side by side

Factor	Birmingham	Utrecht
Country	United Kingdom	Netherlands
Size	Large: 1 to 5 million people	Mid-sized: 250,000 to 1 million people
Setting	Near the coast	Near the coast
Est. cost for a couple	€3,980 a month	€3,755 a month
Tax tier	High tax	High tax
Average temperature	10°C	11°C
Rainfall	869 mm a year	846 mm a year
Safety	56 / 100	72 / 100
Healthcare	74 / 100	80 / 100
Internet (median fixed)	~110 Mbps	~180 Mbps
Main languages	English	Dutch, 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	93 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

Utrecht is cheaper: we estimate about €3,755 a month for a couple living centrally, against €3,980 in Birmingham. That is €225 a month, or 6%, less.

Taxes

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

Climate

Utrecht is 1°C warmer on average over the year: 11°C against 10°C in Birmingham. Rainfall is similar: about 869 mm a year in Birmingham and 846 mm in Utrecht.

Safety

Utrecht is the safer pick: the Netherlands scores 72 out of 100 on safety, 16 points above the United Kingdom (56).

Healthcare

Utrecht has the stronger healthcare: the Netherlands scores 80 out of 100 on healthcare, 6 points above the United Kingdom (74).

Internet

Utrecht has faster home internet: about 180 Mbps median fixed download against about 110 Mbps in Birmingham.

Language

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

Residency and visas

Both are rated possible, with conditions for long-term residency. For short visits, 35 of 198 passports can enter the United Kingdom visa-free and 93 can enter the Netherlands.

Which one fits a couple

On the factors we measure, Utrecht leads on cost (€3,755 against €3,980 a month), safety (72 against 56 out of 100), healthcare (80 against 74 out of 100) and internet speed (180 Mbps against 110 Mbps), and Birmingham leads on none of them. What our data does not cover can still tip it toward Birmingham: jobs, family nearby, or simply which one each of you prefers after a visit.

Size differs too: Birmingham is a large city (1 to 5 million people) and Utrecht a mid-sized one (250,000 to 1 million people).

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

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