Hungary
Latest Average Wage
+18.8% · 5 years
$39,145
Country Comparison
Hungary vs Poland
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Hungary
vs
Poland
$39,1452025
Latest Average Wage
Poland +25.4%
(vs Hungary)
$49,0742025
+18.8%2025
5-Year Wage Change
Hungary +2.4 pts
(vs Poland)
+16.4%2025
+48.3%2025
10-Year Wage Change
Hungary +6.3 pts
(vs Poland)
+42.0%2025
45.12024
Overall Price Level
Poland +0.6 index points
(vs Hungary)
45.72024
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
Poland
Latest Average Wage
+16.4% · 5 years
$49,074
Wage Milestones
Hungary
10 Years Ago
$26,390 (2015)
Historical Peak
$39,145 (2025)
Latest Wage
$39,145 (2025)
Poland
10 Years Ago
$34,551 (2015)
Historical Peak
$49,074 (2025)
Latest Wage
$49,074 (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
Hungary (HUN)Poland (POL)
Overall
−0.6 index points
100
45.1vs45.7
Food
+7.1 index points
100
81.6vs74.5
Clothing
−14.8 index points
100
76.4vs91.2
Housing
+7.9 index points
100
35.6vs27.7
Health
−10.1 index points
100
19.2vs29.3
Transport
+2.5 index points
100
84.4vs81.9
Recreation
−2.4 index points
100
55.7vs58.1
Restaurants & Accommodation
−20.5 index points
100
56.7vs77.2
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
Poland's latest average wage is $49,074 for 2025, about 25.4% higher than Hungary's $39,145 for 2025 — computed straight from the two reported values. Per year, that works out to roughly $9,929 on the shared purchasing-power basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, Poland shows the stronger movement at +4.6%, against +3.4% for Hungary. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Hungary at +18.8% and Poland at +16.4% — 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
Restaurants & Accommodation shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 56.7 for Hungary against 77.2 for Poland. Poland sits on the higher side of that 20.5-point spread; Hungary reads 20.5 index points lower on the US=100 scale. Index points are not percentages; the two scales answer different questions.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Overall: Hungary reads 45.1 and Poland 45.7 for 2024, just 0.6 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Recreation at 2.4 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
A clear separation shows in the latest wage figures — Poland at $49,074 for 2025, and Hungary at $39,145 for 2025. The higher figure exceeds the lower one by 25.4% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $9,929 a year. No extra conversion is needed here: each figure is already a purchasing-power-adjusted annual amount in constant prices. For scale, neither series has moved by that much within any single reported year, so the gap is structural rather than the product of one unusual observation. Over ten years Hungary recorded +48.3% and Poland +42.0%, so the two series have been moving in the same long-term direction.
Wage Direction
The five-year direction is shared here: both series rise, with different momentum on each side. Hungary sits at the highest point of its series — $39,145 in 2025 is also the historical peak, with a ten-year change of +48.3%. Poland sits at the highest point of its series — $49,074 in 2025 is also the historical peak, with a ten-year change of +42.0%. The shared direction still leaves room for different speeds: +18.8% for Hungary against +16.4% for Poland, so the distance between the two levels keeps shifting. All changes here are measured in real, PPP-adjusted terms, so they describe purchasing-power movement rather than nominal pay increases.
Price Profile
Hungary's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 45.1, and Poland's reads 45.7, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: Hungary leads in 3 of the 8 comparable categories and Poland in 5, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. The widest separation is in Restaurants & Accommodation: 56.7 for Hungary against 77.2 for Poland, a gap of 20.5 index points. At the other end, Overall brings the two closest — 45.1 versus 45.7, a gap of just 0.6 index points. Relative to the US benchmark, Hungary reads above 100 in 0 of its 8 reported categories, and Poland in 0 of its 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
