Ljubljana vs Prague for couples
Ljubljana, in Slovenia, and Prague, in Czechia, are about 449 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. Ljubljana leads on safety, internet speed and getting by in English; Prague on tax.
12 questions, about 4 minutes, no account needed. Taking the quiz is free, and so is seeing your #1 city. Full results for both of you are a one-time US$12 (€12 in Europe).
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
Close on cost: we estimate about €2,840 a month for a couple living centrally in Ljubljana and €2,921 in Prague.
Taxes
Prague has the lighter tax load: Czechia is in our low to medium tax tier, Slovenia in our high tax tier.
Climate
Both average 11°C over the year. Prague is drier, with about 500 mm of rain a year against 1,403 mm in Ljubljana (64% less).
Safety
Ljubljana is the safer pick: Slovenia scores 80 out of 100 on safety, 6 points above Czechia (74).
Healthcare
Tied: Slovenia and Czechia both score 70 out of 100 on healthcare.
Internet
Ljubljana has faster home internet: about 110 Mbps median fixed download against about 90 Mbps in Prague.
Language
Main languages: Slovenian, English in Ljubljana; Czech in Prague. English goes further in Ljubljana (good English) than in Prague (some 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 $3,725 a month in Slovenia and $940 in Czechia. 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 Slovenia visa-free and 93 can enter Czechia.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts safety (80 against 74 out of 100), internet speed (110 Mbps against 90 Mbps) and getting by in English (good English against some English) first, Ljubljana comes out ahead. If the other cares more about tax (low to medium tax against high tax), Prague does.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: whoever minds rain will prefer Prague (500 mm a year against 1,403 mm).
Size differs too: Ljubljana is a mid-sized city (250,000 to 1 million people) and Prague a large one (1 to 5 million people). Ljubljana is near the coast; Prague is inland.
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Ljubljana, Prague and 913 other cities for both of you at once.