Italy
Latest Average Wage
+1.8% · 5 years
$53,864
Country Comparison
Italy vs Estonia
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Italy
vs
Estonia
$53,8642025
Latest Average Wage
Italy +31.3%
(vs Estonia)
$41,0192025
+1.8%2025
5-Year Wage Change
Italy +0.3 pts
(vs Estonia)
+1.6%2025
−3.9%2025
10-Year Wage Change
Estonia +31.4 pts
(vs Italy)
+27.6%2025
64.12024
Overall Price Level
Italy +0.5 index points
(vs Estonia)
63.62024
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
Estonia
Latest Average Wage
+1.6% · 5 years
$41,019
Wage Milestones
Italy
10 Years Ago
$56,043 (2015)
Historical Peak
$57,790 (2010)
Latest Wage
$53,864 (2025)
Estonia
10 Years Ago
$32,160 (2015)
Historical Peak
$42,741 (2021)
Latest Wage
$41,019 (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
Italy (ITA)Estonia (EST)
Overall
+0.5 index points
100
64.1vs63.6
Food
−4.5 index points
100
86.7vs91.2
Clothing
−9.7 index points
100
95.3vs105
Housing
−4.1 index points
100
50.8vs54.9
Health
+11.4 index points
100
52.8vs41.4
Transport
+1.4 index points
100
99.9vs98.5
Recreation
−9.4 index points
100
74.4vs83.8
Restaurants & Accommodation
+8.7 index points
100
89.4vs80.7
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
Italy's latest average wage is $53,864 for 2025, about 31.3% higher than Estonia's $41,019 for 2025 — a percentage worked out directly from the two reported figures. In annual terms the gap comes to about $12,845 on the same PPP basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, Estonia shows the stronger movement at +1.4%, against +1.2% for Italy. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Italy at +1.8% and Estonia at +1.6% — 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 Italy against 41.4 for Estonia. That is a separation of 11.4 index points on the US=100 scale, with Italy on the higher side and Estonia on the lower one. Index points are not percentages; the two scales answer different questions.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Overall: Italy reads 64.1 and Estonia 63.6 for 2024 — effectively the same relative price level on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Transport at 1.4 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
Few pairings separate this cleanly — Italy's latest average wage of $53,864 for 2025 stands well above Estonia's $41,019 for 2025. The higher figure exceeds the lower one by 31.3% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $12,845 a year. Because both values already sit on the same USD PPP, constant-2025-price footing, the comparison adjusts for price-level differences between the two economies. 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 Italy recorded −3.9% against Estonia's +27.6%, so the current levels were reached on visibly different long-term paths.
Wage Direction
The five-year direction is shared here: both series rise, with different momentum on each side. Italy is partway through a recovery: the latest year added +1.2%, though the level remains 6.8% below its peak. Estonia is partway through a recovery: the latest year added +1.4%, though the level remains 4.0% below its peak. The shared direction still leaves room for different speeds: +1.8% for Italy against +1.6% for Estonia, 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
Italy's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 64.1, and Estonia's reads 63.6, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: Italy leads in 3 of the 8 comparable categories and Estonia in 4, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. The widest separation is in Health: 52.8 for Italy against 41.4 for Estonia, a gap of 11.4 index points. At the other end, Overall brings the two closest — 64.1 versus 63.6, a gap of just 0.5 index points. Relative to the US benchmark, Italy reads above 100 in 0 of its 8 reported categories, and Estonia in 1 of its 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
