Budapest vs Madrid for couples
Budapest, in Hungary, and Madrid, in Spain, are about 1,974 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. Budapest leads on cost, tax and safety; Madrid on 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
Budapest is cheaper: we estimate about €2,810 a month for a couple living centrally, against €3,256 in Madrid. That is €446 a month, or 14%, less.
Taxes
Budapest has the lighter tax load: Hungary is in our low to medium tax tier, Spain in our high tax tier.
Climate
Madrid is 4°C warmer on average over the year: 16°C against 12°C in Budapest. Madrid is drier, with about 378 mm of rain a year against 548 mm in Budapest (31% less).
Safety
Budapest is the safer pick: Hungary scores 72 out of 100 on safety, 7 points above Spain (65).
Healthcare
Madrid has the stronger healthcare: Spain scores 79 out of 100 on healthcare, 24 points above Hungary (55).
Internet
Close: about 200 Mbps median fixed download in Budapest and about 200 Mbps in Madrid.
Language
Main languages: Hungarian in Budapest; Spanish in Madrid. English proficiency is rated the same in both: some English.
Residency and visas
Both are rated comparatively open for long-term residency for people from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. The cheapest self-funded income route we track starts at about $3,491 a month in Hungary and $2,793 in Spain. 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 Hungary visa-free and 93 can enter Spain.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts cost (€2,810 against €3,256 a month), tax (low to medium tax against high tax) and safety (72 against 65 out of 100) first, Budapest comes out ahead. If the other cares more about healthcare (79 against 55 out of 100), Madrid does.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: a partner who wants warmth leans toward Madrid (16°C on average), while one who minds the heat leans toward Budapest (12°C), and whoever minds rain will prefer Madrid (378 mm a year against 548 mm).
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Budapest, Madrid and 913 other cities for both of you at once.