Named after the protagonist of the single Carrie Bradshaw from the series "Sex and the City", "The Economist" has just analyzed the cities in Europe where singles live the cheapest. A German city is the surprising winner.
"Sex and the City" and the love adventures of Carrie Bradshaw have fascinated many viewers for several decades. In the case of the series, "The City" refers to New York - a rather expensive place to live. After Carrie, the British business newspaper The Economist has now named an index that identifies Europe's most affordable cities for people living alone. The surprising winner: Bonn is the city in Europe where people living alone manage best financially.
To find the cheapest city in Europe, The Economist used Eurostat data to analyze the rental costs for one-bedroom apartments and compared them with the average income per capita. The benchmark was the 30 percent rule: housing is considered affordable if no more than 30 percent of income has to be spent on rent.
Based on the ratio of average income to rent, The Economist developed the so-called "Bradshaw Score" - named after Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex and the City". A value of 1 means that the income is sufficient to cover the rent comfortably. If the value is below this, it becomes mathematically tight.
With a "Bradshaw Score" of 1.33, Bonn is the most affordable city for people living alone in Europe. The former German capital, which is now home to numerous UN organizations, among other things, scores well in a European comparison with a relatively balanced ratio of income to rent.
Lyon, Berne, Brussels and Helsinki follow. Vienna and Luxembourg also make it into the top spots. With a value of 1.01, Berlin also ranks among the comparatively affordable cities - albeit by a narrow margin.
Bonn
Lyon
Berne
Brussels
Helsinki
Vienna
Luxembourg
Berlin
Before making plans to move, it's worth taking a second look. National studies that take into account not only rents but also energy, food and everyday costs tend to place Bonn in the upper price segment within Germany.
The difference can be explained by the perspective: while the Economist only looks at the ratio of income to one-room rents in a European comparison, other analyses include all living costs.
