Cost of Living in Spain vs the UK 2026: Rent, Food, Transport

A single working-age adult in the UK spends about £631 a week, roughly €38,700 a year, on the ONS survey measure, against €14,066 a year per person in Spain’s INE survey. Rent follows the same direction: the ONS puts the average UK private rent at £1,400 a month (about €1,649), while the Spanish figures we use are €906 for a 60 m² flat nationally and €1,404 in Madrid. The gap is large, but part of it is income and part is how the two surveys are built, so read the details below.

Conversions use the ECB reference rate of 6 October 2026: €1 = £0.8488, so £1 = €1.178. The UK spending data is the ONS Family Spending survey for the financial year ending March 2025 (published 11 June 2026, the latest edition). The Spanish data is the INE Household Budget Survey for 2025.

Comparing like with like: one adult, not the household

ONS publishes average weekly spending by household type. The average UK household spent £676.60 a week in that year, but households vary in size. The cleanest match to a “per person” Spanish figure is the ONS table for households with one non-retired adult, where the weighted average is exactly one person per household. We use its “all households” column and multiply the weekly figure by 52.

Two limits apply. This table rests on 240 sampled households, so it is a rough guide. And the Spanish INE figure averages every person in Spain, children and retirees included, while the UK one is a working-age adult living alone.

What a person spends: UK adult vs Spain

Per person, a year	UK single adult (FYE 2025)	Spain (2025)
Food and non-alcoholic drinks	£2,465 / €2,904	€2,255
Transport	£4,919 / €5,795	€1,611
Restaurants and hotels	£2,501 / €2,947	€1,315
Health	£551 / €649	€566
Total expenditure	£32,828 / €38,675	€14,066

Weekly ONS figures: £47.40 food and drinks, £94.60 transport, £48.10 restaurants and hotels, £10.60 health, £631.30 total. Annual figures are weekly × 52; euro figures divide pounds by 0.8488.

What the table does and does not say:

• Food, health and transport are defined similarly. Both sides use the same broad groups (food and non-alcoholic drinks, transport, restaurants and hotels, health). Transport includes buying vehicles on both sides.
• UK spending includes things Spain’s average person buys less of. The ONS single adult spends £34.20 a week on vehicle purchases and £34.20 on transport services (£1,778 a year each, about €2,095), which alone exceeds the INE transport figure for Spain.
• The UK total is not net of tax in the way you might expect. ONS lists income tax (£251.80 a week) and National Insurance (£50.90) outside “total expenditure”, so the £631 excludes both. We have not verified how the INE survey treats taxes, so do not subtract one total from the other as a tax comparison.
• Spending reflects income. A salaried single adult earns more than the average Spanish resident of any age, and buys accordingly. This table measures spending, not what the same basket costs in each country.

Rent: what tenants pay on average vs what landlords ask

The ONS Price Index of Private Rents covers new and existing tenancies and reports actual rents paid, not advertised prices. For August 2026 it gives these average monthly rents:

Area	ONS average rent	In euros
United Kingdom	£1,400	€1,649
England	£1,459	€1,719
London	£2,332	€2,747
Scotland	£1,013	€1,193
Wales	£846	€997

The Spanish side is idealista’s September 2026 asking rent per m², applied to a 60 m² flat as in our Spain guide:

Spain, 60 m² flat	Monthly rent
National (€15.1/m²)	€906
Alicante	€834
Valencia	€978
Barcelona	€1,206
Madrid	€1,404

The comparison has three gaps. ONS averages all private rented homes of every size, while we fixed the Spanish flat at 60 m². ONS describes rents tenants pay, while idealista describes asking prices for homes currently listed, not what existing tenants pay. And the two averages cover different home types, so a UK average of £1,400 does not buy the same space as €906 in Spain.

Even with those gaps, London (€2,747) is about twice the Spanish figure for Madrid (€1,404), and the UK average (€1,649) is above all five Spanish cities in our data. For how to rent as a newcomer see renting in Spain as a foreigner.

A couple, for scale

For two non-retired adults, ONS reports £872.60 a week of total expenditure in the same year (£45,375 a year, about €53,460). That table has 610 sampled households. Spain’s per-person average of €14,066 doubles to €28,132 for two people, but remember that average includes children and retirees and imputed rent for owners. Our Spain budget guide builds a couple’s monthly budget from rent plus everyday spending.

What changes for a Brit in Spain

• Your income does not change currency by itself. A £2,000 monthly pension is €2,356 at today’s rate; if sterling falls, so does that figure. See UK pensions and tax in Spain.
• Visa and tax rules are separate questions. See Spain visas from the UK for entry and residence.
• Health costs differ in kind, not just amount. The ONS health line (£10.60 a week) is what households spend directly, outside what NHS funding covers through taxes, and the INE health line (€566 a year) is likewise spending reported by households. We give no private-insurance premium because we did not retrieve a primary-source price; see healthcare in Spain for expats.

Checked 7 October 2026. Exchange rates move daily: recompute with the current ECB rate before you plan a budget.