| If standard of living is purely defined as GDP per capita, then it makes sense. I was thinking of "standard of living" as something akin to "quality of life" (which is subjective of course, but here are a couple of rankings placing Vilnius above Bucharest [0][1][2][3]). Also, for someone working remotely, a lower GDP per capita (assuming good infrastructure, low inequality/poverty/crime and corruption, etc. which are true in Vilnius, at least) might be preferable. That being said, I think the trend for most of these statistics (GDP, HDI) for Lithuania vs Romania (or Vilnius vs Bucharest) seems to favor the former as well. e.g. Vilnius county went from 0.861 to 0.920 HDI (0.59 delta) between 2009 and 2019; Bucharest went from 0.898 to 0.933 HDI (0.35 delta) in the same time period [4] [0] https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/Insights/quality-of-livi... [1] https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings.jsp [2] https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/cities-and-happiness-a... [3] https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/maps/qua... [4] https://globaldatalab.org/shdi/shdi/LTU+ROU/?levels=1%2B4&in... |
> but here are a couple of rankings placing Vilnius above Bucharest [0][1][2][3]
informative, thanks for this!
> HDI
dang, i didn't consider looking into HDI. not sure how it's measured but it places bucharest-ilfov on par with parts of the UK and east switzerland?
https://globaldatalab.org/shdi/shdi/ROU+CHE+GBR/?levels=1%2B...
Either way you are right, quality of life is subjective. I don't particularly enjoy life here overall, just taxes and the group of friends I have. Romania is far behind central and western europe in terms of mindset, but is nowhere near the low level i thought it was.