The income of Romanians has risen dramatically over the past 15 years, but remains below the European average

Between 2010 and 2025, the median real income (adjusted for inflation) of Europeans increased by 25%. During this period, Romania recorded the fastest growth in real income, with an increase of 160%, according to Eurostat data processed by Monitorul Social, a project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Romania.

Median income is different from median wages and includes various types of income, such as wages, pensions, allowances, and other social transfers.

Ten years ago (2016), the annual median net income in Romania was €2,448, 6.5 times lower than the European Union average. By 2025, it had reached €8,187 (approximately 3,500 lei/month). This accelerated growth has narrowed, but not eliminated, the gap between Romanians’ incomes and the European Union average; the ratio relative to the EU has fallen to 2.8. Between 2016 and 2025, cumulative inflation in Romania was 65%.

The maximum threshold for the lowest 20% of incomes (the first quintile) was €5,046 per year in 2025 (2,100 lei/month), four times higher than in 2016 (€1,260). During the same period, the minimum threshold for the top 20% of incomes (the fifth quintile) tripled: from €3,998 to €11,894 (5,000 lei/month). As a result, the gap between the lowest and highest quintiles narrowed from 3.2:1 to 2.4:1. Although there is a trend toward narrowing the gap between high and low incomes, it remains large compared to other European countries. Across the entire European Union, the ratio between the fifth and first quintiles is 2.2.

The gap between incomes in large cities and rural areas began to narrow starting in 2022. In 2025, half of adults in large cities earned over €10,032 per year (4,200 lei per month), while in rural areas the median income was 1.5 times lower, at €6,543 (2,750 lei per month)—after this ratio stood at 2:1 in 2021 (€6,840 versus €3,362).

Note: In this infographic, income refers to equivalent disposable income, i.e., a household’s total net income (including social transfers) after all taxes have been paid, divided by the number of members. Real income represents equivalent disposable income adjusted for the consumer price index.

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Data source: Eurostat, Distribution of income (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/explore/all/popul?sort=category&lang=en&subtheme=livcon.ilc.ilc_ip.ilc_di&display=list )

• · Income in real terms (2010 SILC=100) [ilc_di18]
• · Distribution of income by quantiles [ilc_di01]
• · Mean and median income by degree of urbanization [ilc_di17]
• · HICP - inflation rate [tec00118]

Data processing and text design: Mircea Kivu

Infographic: Pascalone Media SRL

The media may reproduce the text and infographic, provided the source is indicated.