Gen Z Affordability Index: These are the Cheapest Countries for Gen Z to Live In

Move over Millennials, Gen Z are here and they’re getting older. It’s a common misconception that millennials are still young children and are often hounded for not being responsible, being spoiled and failing to think practically. The thing people don’t seem to realize is that the youngest millennial is 24 with the oldest being 37. Gen Z have now taken over as the younger generation and with this comes a new era of citizens.

Generation Z have now taken over and are characterized as people born between 1995 – 2010. They’re recognized by their love of the social media platform TikTok and support of school strikes in the name of child-activist Greta Thunberg. Gen Z are the people who have lived their entire lives online which makes them as comfortable on the internet as interacting with people in their own home.

This group of people are the next to take to the skies and will pave the way as new-age travelers. There are already some trends emerging, along with no-fly holidays on the rise and people looking for authentic experiences. Gen Z will soon be looking to travel all over the world and settle in different countries. May are researching how to get Italian citizenship and apply for an Italian passport as it allows you access to the entire European Union. 

Italy has a special law that grants citizenship through jure sanguinis or by descent. That’s why at Italian Dual Citizenship we’ve created the Gen Z Affordability Index to find out which countries are the cheapest based on the price of some of Gen Z’s favorite activities. We also included necessities such as rent, food and petrol, but also added some items most-loved by Gen Z including the cost of a coffee, the price of a monthly gym membership and how much it costs for unlimited internet in each country.

Read ahead to find out which countries Gen Z may be settling in in the near future and why there are some unlikely choice which rank so highly.

Ranking in the top spot as the cheapest country for Gen Z to live is India.

India has amassed a bit of a cult following in recent years. The country, shunned by the older generation but raved about by hostel-dwelling youths, came out as the cheapest country, scoring top marks for almost all the categories. India offers the third-cheapest coffee in the world, great for those wanting to grab a to-go cup before work.

More importantly, the country has the 4th cheapest rent of any other on our list, an important factor for Gen Z to consider. Rent is, of course, a large pain point for Gen Z, which this bill taking up most of their wage every month. A country with cheap rent is definitely one to be raved about.

The country to top 2nd place is Algeria in North Africa. An unlikely contender to grace the top 10, this country has a history of political instability but is now a safe country to visit and even live. Algeria is still unvisited by travelers which may make it the ideal place for Gen Z to relocated and get away from it all. The country topped our list for two factors, its rent and coffee being cheaper than any other destination.

It’s interesting to see that a number of continents didn’t manage to have a country rank in the top 10, including Oceania, North America and South America. In fact, no country in Oceania made the list at all, showing that this continent is likely to be too expensive for Gen Z to live, mostly dominated by tropical islands perfect for tourists on their honeymoon or Australia and New Zealand that are famed as being two of the most expensive places to visit.

Europe appeared most frequently in the top 10 with Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia & Herzegovina all featuring. These countries are arguably lesser known tourist destinations and can be considered to be some of the best places to visit for Gen Z looking to get away from it all.

Indonesia unfortunately narrowly missed out at 11th place. Bali, a place loved by both tourists and expats alike has become an island where the typical Instagram influencer often chooses to emigrate to and soak in the warm weather and quirky culture. The country may have been higher on the list if not for its expensive pints (you can thank the boom in tourism for that) and groceries with a heftier price tag than others.

To create our Gen Z Affordability Index, we looked at the price of the following:

• Rent
• Groceries
• Restaurant Meal
• Pint
• Coffee
• Cinema Ticket
• Gym Membership
• Unlimited Broadband
• Taxi
• Petrol
• Public Transport Ticket

Using these categories, we established an overall Gen Z Affordability Index score by scoring each country out of 5 across the elements and totaling this together, allowing for a highest available total score of 55. We then used the price of rent as the deciding ranking factor. Full dataset available on request.

Sources:

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp

http://www.pintprice.com/

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-living/Restaurant-prices/Coffee/Regular-cappuccino

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-living/Cinema-ticket-price/International-release

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=40

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-living/Internet/Broadband-6Mpbs,-uncapped-data

https://www.numbeo.com/taxi-fare/

https://www.numbeo.com/gas-prices/

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-living/Transport-prices/Public-transport/One-way-ticket

This page was last updated by Jason LoPresti