How has the cost of living evolved in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal? | Interactive news

Student protests in France are in their second month and are turning into demonstrations across Europe.

What began in September in France with student protests against overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages has morphed into broader anger over the cost of living and planned budget cuts to public services.

In Albania, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, demonstrators also took to the streets to denounce the lack of affordable housing, rising costs and the failure of public services. Many young people say they no longer expect to be better off than their parents.

Facing their anger are leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro. Sanchez belongs to the left, Meloni to the right and Macron and Montenegro are conservative-leaning centrists. But even as their policies vary, they all face growing unrest due to the soaring cost of living.

Are they disconnected from the experiences and feelings of young people in their country? Al Jazeera visualizes the evolution of prices, wages, housing and education in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal over the past 26 years, since Macron, Meloni, Sanchez and Montenegro were in their 20s, as were many of the protesters angry at them.

How much more expensive is it than in 2000?

Prices paid for everyday goods such as food, energy, transport and bills have increased by 59 to 78 percent since 2000 in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency. Its harmonized consumer price index (HICP) is the EU’s official measure of the cost of everyday goods and services.

Spain recorded the largest increase with 78 percent, followed by Portugal with 71 percent, Italy with 68 percent and France with 59 percent.

This means that goods and services that cost 100 euros ($112) in 2000 now cost around 178 euros ($200) in Spain, 171 euros ($192) in Portugal, 168 euros ($188) in Italy and 159 euros ($178) in France.

Prices rose about 2% a year on average, but jumped in 2022, when annual inflation reached 8.7% in Italy, 8.3% in Spain, 8.1% in Portugal and 5.9% in France, the highest rate in all four countries since at least 2000.

This increase is mainly due to energy costs, which skyrocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In October of the same year, eight months after the start of the war, energy prices in the Eurozone were almost 42% higher than a year earlier, and food prices were also rising sharply, according to Eurostat.

Between 2021 and 2023, prices increased by 12 to 15 percent in the four countries. Wages have failed to keep up, and with prices not falling once inflation eases, many households are still feeling the squeeze today.

How have salaries evolved?

Once inflation is taken into account, the average full-time salary in Italy fell by almost 5 percent between 2000 and 2025. Over the same period, real wages increased by 7 percent in Spain, 11 percent in France and 20 percent in Portugal, according to OECD wage data adjusted with the Eurostat price index.

In Spain, most new jobs were in tourism and services, and were often seasonal and poorly paid, Jaime Velazquez, a journalist in Madrid, told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story.

Julius Fintelmann, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The European Correspondent, said aging societies were reducing opportunities for younger workers, adding that the pay gap between older and younger workers had been widening for decades in high-income economies, so the promise that each generation would be better off than the last no longer holds true.

How has the cost of housing changed?

Housing has become more difficult to afford in all four countries since 2000, according to the OECD price-to-income ratio. It provides a general overview of how house prices have changed in relation to income over time. When prices rise faster than incomes, the ratio increases, suggesting that housing becomes less affordable on average.

However, it doesn’t show which households or regions are hardest hit, doesn’t take into account the costs of mortgages and borrowing, and says nothing about the quality of housing people are paying for.

Spain has seen the biggest change. Its price-to-income ratio is 56 percent higher than in 2000, even after falling sharply following the 2008 financial crisis.

In France, this ratio is 39 percent higher than in 2000, although it has declined slightly since the 2022 peak.

Italy is the exception where property prices have broadly kept pace with incomes, leaving the ratio just 5 percent higher than in 2000.

Portugal has seen the most marked change in recent years. Its price-to-income ratio fell steadily for 15 years after 2000, meaning housing became more affordable. But since 2015, this ratio has increased by 67 percent.

The OECD publishes the price/income ratio with 2015 as the base year. To compare with the wage and price data presented in this article from 2000, Al Jazeera reset the numbers so that 2000 = 100.

How has public education spending evolved?

Education has been at the heart of the unrest in France, where protests began due to overcrowded classes and a lack of teachers. In Belgium and Albania, protesters rallied against the rising costs of education and access to universities.

According to the latest Eurostat data, France’s public spending on education amounts to 5.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), up from 5.6 percent in 2000.

Italy spent 4.4 percent of its GDP on education, up from 4 percent in 2024; Spain spent 4.1 percent in 2000 and the same in 2024. Portugal spent 4.8 percent in 2000 and 4.3 percent in 2024.