Belgium
Latest Average Wage
+6.0% · 5 years
$80,009
Country Comparison
Belgium vs Netherlands
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Belgium
vs
Netherlands
$80,0092025
Latest Average Wage
Netherlands +0.2%
(vs Belgium)
$80,1362025
+6.0%2025
5-Year Wage Change
Belgium +8.0 pts
(vs Netherlands)
−2.0%2025
+4.3%2025
10-Year Wage Change
Belgium +7.4 pts
(vs Netherlands)
−3.1%2025
77.52024
Overall Price Level
Netherlands +0.9 index points
(vs Belgium)
78.42024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
Netherlands
Latest Average Wage
−2.0% · 5 years
$80,136
Wage Milestones
Belgium
10 Years Ago
$76,731 (2015)
Historical Peak
$80,009 (2025)
Latest Wage
$80,009 (2025)
Netherlands
10 Years Ago
$82,711 (2015)
Historical Peak
$83,103 (2016)
Latest Wage
$80,136 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
Belgium (BEL)Netherlands (NLD)
Overall
−0.9 index points
100
77.5vs78.4
Food
+5.5 index points
100
89.9vs84.4
Clothing
+5.5 index points
100
88.2vs82.7
Housing
+1.1 index points
100
74.2vs73.1
Health
−8.0 index points
100
52.8vs60.8
Transport
−5.0 index points
100
114vs119
Recreation
−4.3 index points
100
85.7vs90
Restaurants & Accommodation
+1.8 index points
100
101vs99.2
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
Belgium's latest average wage is $80,009 for 2025, effectively level with Netherlands' $80,136 for 2025 — the relative difference, calculated from the two reported values, rounds to under half a percent. Per year, that works out to roughly $128 on the shared purchasing-power basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, Netherlands shows the stronger movement at +1.9%, against +1.8% for Belgium. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Belgium at +6.0% and Netherlands at −2.0% — so the latest year is not the whole story. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Health shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 52.8 for Belgium against 60.8 for Netherlands. Netherlands sits on the higher side of that 8.0-point spread; Belgium reads 8.0 index points lower on the US=100 scale. The gap is stated in index points, which are not interchangeable with percentages.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Overall: Belgium reads 77.5 and Netherlands 78.4 for 2024, just 0.9 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Housing at 1.1 index points apart. Two readings this close mean the category sits at nearly the same point of the US=100 scale for both.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
Belgium and Netherlands report nearly the same PPP-adjusted average annual wage: $80,136 for 2025, against $80,009 for 2025. The difference is 0.2% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $128 a year, which is small next to either figure. No extra conversion is needed here: each figure is already a purchasing-power-adjusted annual amount in constant prices. Over ten years Belgium recorded +4.3% against Netherlands' −3.1%, so the current levels were reached on visibly different long-term paths. For most side-by-side readings the two wage levels can be treated as equivalent within this dataset.
Wage Direction
Opposite directions define this pairing, and they pull the two wage levels closer together. Belgium sits at the highest point of its series — $80,009 in 2025 is also the historical peak, with a ten-year change of +4.3%. Netherlands is partway through a recovery: the latest year added +1.9%, though the level remains 3.6% below its peak. The side gaining in real terms is Belgium, the lower of the two latest wage levels (+6.0% over five years against −2.0%), so on these measures the two are closing in rather than drifting apart. Each percentage is a real, PPP-adjusted change; nominal pay movements are outside what this dataset reports.
Price Profile
Belgium's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 77.5, and Netherlands' reads 78.4, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: Belgium leads in 4 of the 8 comparable categories and Netherlands in 4, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. Health separates the two most: Belgium reads 52.8 and Netherlands 60.8, 8.0 index points apart. The two sit closest in Overall (77.5 versus 78.4), only 0.9 index points apart. Counted against the US reference of 100, 2 of Belgium's 8 reported categories sit above the line, against 1 of Netherlands' 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
