The most important and common indicator of a countries’ level of economic welfare, the GDP per capita, shows that out of the EU’s 28 countries, Hungary is listed at 23rd (68% of the EU average).

Bulgaria is ranked last and only Croatia (62%), Romania (63%), Latvia (67%) and Greece (67%) are behind Hungary. Poland (70%), Slovakia (76%), Slovenia (85%) and Austria (127%) are ahead of the rest of the region.

The situation appears even worse if the Actual Individual Consumption (AIC)—a more accurate method for comparing the relative welfare of consumers across various countries—is counted.

The only EU country ranked behind Hungary (62% of EU average) in consumption is Bulgaria (54%), as Croatia’s percentage equals Hungary’s. The rest of the countries in the EU, including Poland (76%), Romania (68%), Slovakia (76%), Slovenia (77%) and Austria (117%), precede Hungary.

Both lists are expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) which eliminates price level differences.

Luxembourg heads both lists, and interestingly, when analyzing the data from the last three years, Romania shows the highest rate of improvement. In addition, all five of the Balkan countries examined—Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro—are well behind Hungary.