What are the Best Cities in Europe To Live as a Family

Raising a family can be a wildly different experience across the world, with some cities offering the perfect home for young families, with everything from affordable housing to plenty of enticing family-friendly attractions.

Sumo Finans took a look at 50 European cities, ranking each one on a number of factors, including affordability, education, safety, and more, to see which one was the best for family living. 

The Best European Cities for Family Living

When we take all the factors into consideration, Porto takes the top spot on our table, with plenty of family-friendly things to do, including 0.92 nature and park sites per square km, and 1.69 ‘good for kids’ attractions per square km.

Barcelona comes in second, with a score of 68.60, and Lisbon third with a score of 68.12.

1. Porto – Portugal – 75.28 family living score
2. Barcelona – Spain – 68.60 family living score
3. Lisbon – Portugal – 68.12 family living score

The Most Affordable European Cities for Family Living

One of the biggest concerns for parents raising a family is the financial cost, and some of these cities are more affordable than others.

In fact, Istanbul tops the table with the lowest estimated monthly costs for a family of four of €1,781.60. This takes into account the estimated cost of living, cost of childcare, and rent for a three-bedroom home for one month.  

1. Istanbul – Turkey – €1,781.60 monthly costs
2. Budapest – Hungary – €2,715.89 monthly costs
3. Vilnius – Lithuania – €2,904.49 monthly costs

The Best European Cities for Family Activities

If you’re looking for a city where you can keep the family entertained, Paris is the place to be, with 4.47 family activities per square km. That includes 203 attractions that are good for kids, as well as 266 nature and parks sites.

1. Paris – France – 4.47 family activities per square km
2. Barcelona – Spain – 2.76 family activities per square km
3. Porto – Portugal – 2.61 family activities per square km

The Best European Countries for Education

The Programme for International Student Assessment looks at the proficiency of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science, giving a general picture of the quality of education and learning in the participating countries.

These scores were taken from an average for boys and girls in all three of the subjects:

1. Estonia – 525.67 average PISA score
2. Finland – 516.50 average PISA score
3. Poland – 512.67 average PISA score

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<a href="https://www.sumofinans.no/european-family-living/en"><img style="width:100%;" src="https://www.sumofinans.no/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/7-full-table.jpg"></a><br>European Family Living Infographic by <a href="https://sumofinans.no">Sumo Finans</a>

Methodology and Data Sources:

• The cities were chosen to include those specifically known for being good for families according to a number of sources, including Kinder Travel Guide and Phenomenal Globe.
• We ranked each city on the following factors, giving a normalised score out of 100 for each factor, before taking an average score across all factors for our final score.
• The Global Peace Index score comes from the Vision of Humanity Global Peace Index 2020 with a lower score indicating a more peaceful country.
• Numbeo provided the data for affordability factors. The cost of living is given as an estimated monthly cost for a family of four. The cost of childcare is an estimated monthly cost for one child in private preschooling. The cost of a three-bedroom home is an average of the cost for renting a three-bedroom home in the city centre and outside of the city.
• The activities data comes from Tripadvisor, with the number of ‘good for kids’ attractions and number of ‘nature and parks’ attractions falling in the attractions category.
• The Reading, Mathematics, and Science PISA Performance score is an average of the scores for boys and girls for the subjects, reading, mathematics, and science, as provided by OECD.