Where to live in Hungary
We track 4 cities in Hungary: Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged and Székesfehérvár. Average temperatures run from 12°C to 13°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,468 to €2,810 a month to live centrally. Hungary sits in our low to medium tax tier. For citizens from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, long-term residency is comparatively open.
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- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Languages
- Hungarian
- Some English
- Safety
- 72/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 55/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~200 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 4 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budapest | large | inland | 12°C | 548 mm | €2,810 |
| Debrecen | smaller | inland | 12°C | 558 mm | €2,536 |
| Szeged | smaller | inland | 13°C | 513 mm | €2,513 |
| Székesfehérvár | smaller | inland | 12°C | 547 mm | €2,468 |
Source: City size from GeoNames, temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages), rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals), coast distance from Natural Earth. Cost is our model estimate for a couple living centrally.
Taxes
Hungary sits in our low to medium tax tier: moderate personal income tax. The tier applies to every city here, and couples who cap tax below it will not see these cities in their results.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Residency and visas
Comparatively open, for people from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. Long-term residency is realistic mainly via the Guest Investor Program (a 10-year renewable residence-by-investment permit) or sponsored skilled employment, with a time-limited digital-nomad White Card covering self-funded remote earners.
Citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights here.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Hungary:
- Income: about $3,491 a month (Hungary White Card digital-nomad residence, EUR 3,000/mo net (converted at EUR/USD 1.1637); as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $291k (Hungary Guest Investor Program real-estate-fund share, EUR 250,000 one-time (converted at EUR/USD 1.1637); as of June 2026)
For short visits, 93 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa in advance.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).