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RS · BELGRADELocal facts

Living in Belgrade.

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia, with 1,680,926 residents in the administrative city at the end of 2025 (official estimate on the 2022 census base). Winters are cold and summers hot, with five pleasant months a year. At the 2022 census 0.8% of the city's residents held only a foreign citizenship and a further 6.2% held Serbian and another citizenship.

VerifiedUpdated

Population 1,680,926

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS) — Estimates of population by age and sex (beginning, middle and end of year) 2011–2025, indicator "Population estimates on 31 December", Beogradska oblast (Grad Beograd); statistical release "Estimated population, 2025" of 1 July 2026

Official source

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
RZS dissemination database (data.stat.gov.rs), table 18010403 "Estimates of population by age and sex (beginning, middle and end of year) 2011 - 2025" (last updated 1 July 2026), indicator "Population estimates on 31 December", Territory - NSTJ = Beogradska oblast (code RS110, which is the City of Belgrade, Grad Beograd, with its 17 city municipalities), Age = Total, Gender = Total, Period = 2025: 1,680,926 residents (the same number is the estimate for 1 January 2026). The same table gives 1,682,015 on 1 January 2025 and 1,681,470 as the 2025 mid-year average. The 2022 Census counted 1,681,405 usual residents in the city (RZS "Total population, by municipalities and cities" workbook and table 3104020703; critical census moment 30 September 2022; the 17 municipal counts add up to the same number). The estimates are built on the 2022 Census with the statistics of births, deaths and internal and international migration. Read 2026-11-03.
Notes
WHOLE ADMINISTRATIVE CITY, not the urban settlement: Grad Beograd has 17 city municipalities, among them suburban and rural ones (Barajevo, Grocka, Lazarevac, Mladenovac, Obrenovac, Sopot, Surčin). The 2022 Census gives the urban settlement "Beograd" 1,197,714 residents, 71% of the city (sum of the census settlement rows for the parts of Voždovac 155,909, Vračar 55,406, Zvezdara 172,625, Zemun 166,049, Novi Beograd 209,763, Palilula 113,883, Rakovica 104,456, Savski venac 36,699, Stari grad 44,737 and Čukarica 138,187; the settlement covers six municipalities entirely and four in part). RZS counts "usually resident" population: people living in the place at least 12 months or intending to stay a year, foreigners resident for a year or longer included, Serbian citizens abroad for less than a year included. The estimate is 0.03% below the census count; the city's population has been almost flat since 2022 (mid-year estimates 1,684,259 in 2022, 1,683,229 in 2023, 1,682,720 in 2024 and 1,681,470 in 2025). Estimates before 2022 rest on the earlier 2011-census base (series break between 2021 and 2022; Belgrade's mid-2021 figure on the old base is 1,688,667) and are not used here. All figures exclude Kosovo and Metohija, where the census was not held.
· Europe/Belgrade· Serbia rules apply

RS · BELGRADE

01

At a glance

The headline numbers for Belgrade — each with its own source and freshness. A live official figure is not the same as a survey estimate or a 30-year climate normal.

01

Cost of living

10.0/10
$509/mo
2025curated

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS) — Household Budget Survey (Anketa o potrošnji domaćinstava) 2025: average monthly individual consumption of households by COICOP group (database table 01010201), converted to one consumption unit (one adult) with the survey's equivalence scale

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
RZS publishes no spending figure for one-person households, only household averages, so the construct used is the survey's own one-adult unit: the consumption unit. Inputs. (1) Household Budget Survey 2025, all households, average monthly individual consumption 109,787 RSD per household (RZS database table 01010201 'Personal household consumption, monthly average', Serbia total, last updated 2026-04-09, read 2026-11-03; the twelve COICOP groups add exactly to the total; the same figure is in RZS' statistical release of 9 April 2026). The 2025 survey is already in 2025 prices, so no price uplift is applied. (2) Consumption units: the 2024 final bulletin (Household Budget Survey 2024, Bulletin 724, https://publikacije.stat.gov.rs/G2025/pdfE/G20255724.pdf, Table 6.1) gives 2.03 consumption units per household on the OECD scale the survey applies (head of household 1, every other member aged 14 and over 0.7, child under 14 0.5; 2.57 members per household); the 2023 bulletin has the same 2.03. The 2025 bulletin is not out, so 2.03 is applied to 2025. (3) Rent: the survey has no imputed rent (consumption means expenditure plus the value of own-produced food, drink and firewood), so only actual rent is removed. The 2024 bulletin (Table 3.1) shows 993 RSD of 'actual rentals paid by tenants' and 294 RSD of 'other actual rentals' per household a month (1,287 RSD, 1.3% of spending) inside the housing group; lifted to 2025 with the Serbian HICP for actual rentals (Eurostat prc_hicp_aind, CP041, annual averages 167.7 in 2024 and 178.4 in 2025, x1.0638) it is 1,369 RSD. Arithmetic. 109,787 - 1,369 = 108,418 RSD per household; / 2.03 = 53,408 RSD per consumption unit a month. RSD to USD = amount / 117.4018 RSD per EUR (Eurostat ert_bil_eur_m, September 2026 monthly average of the National Bank of Serbia rate) x 1.1179 USD per EUR (ECB euro reference rate of 2026-11-03): 53,408 / 117.4018 = EUR 454.91; x 1.1179 = USD 508.55, shown as $509. The 12 lines (RZS COICOP groups, housing without rent) are summed in cost-breakdown.
Notes
What the figure is. It is not a measured one-person household: it is the average private household of Serbia (permanent residents; collective households are not covered; Kosovo is not covered) divided by the survey's 2.03 consumption units, that is, what one adult would spend if the household's spending followed the OECD scale. It includes the value of own production (food, drink, firewood), so rural households weigh in, and the food share is high (36.6% of 2025 spending). It is a national average, not a budget for a foreign remote worker in Belgrade: in 2024 Belgrade-region households spent 108,400 RSD a month against 98,165 RSD nationally (+10%) with 2.42 members against 2.57 (2024 bulletin, Table 3.1). Precision. 2024: 6,227 households surveyed (70% of the 8,856 planned); the 95% interval for the 2024 household mean is 96,119 to 100,180 RSD (coefficient of variation about 1%), so sampling error is about 2%; we did not find the 2025 sample size. Why consumption units. The alternatives are per member (109,787 - 1,369 = 108,418 RSD / 2.57 members = $402), which understates one adult because it counts children and spreads shared costs over more people, or a one-person household, which RZS does not publish. A check against observed one-adult households: Eurostat's harmonised Household Budget Survey tables hold Serbian data for the reference years 2015 and 2020 by household type (hbs_exp_t134, hbs_str_t211, hbs_str_t224, hbs_car_t313; updated October 2025). One-adult households (28.8% of households in 2020, a group that includes many pensioners) spent 7,749 PPS a year per household in 2020 and 8,127 in 2015 against 14,285 and 14,355 for all households, but Eurostat's version includes imputed rent (252 per mille of one-adult spending and 161 per mille of all-household spending in 2020, which RZS' national tables do not). Without actual and imputed rent, one-adult households spent 48.2% of the all-household figure in 2020 and 51.3% in 2015, against 1/2.03 = 49.3% under the survey's scale; applied to the 108,418 RSD those shares give $497 (2020) and $529 (2015), about 2% below and 4% above the $509 shown. The ratio is SettleMetric arithmetic on Eurostat's tables, and the 2020 round is not a published RZS result (RZS says its own 2020 survey was interrupted by the pandemic). Other checks. The 2024 survey (98,165 RSD, 1,287 rent, 2.03 units, 2024 prices) gives $454; lifted to 2025 with the Serbian all-items HICP (151.1 to 157.3, x1.041; flagged by Eurostat 'definition differs') it is $473, 7% below the measured 2025 survey, because RZS' household spending rose 11.8% in nominal terms in 2025 (109,787 against 98,165), faster than prices. Removing rent by the 2024 share of the housing group (8.03%) instead of the rental index gives $508. Rent. Serbia is a country of owners (83.2% of households own their dwelling and 4.0% rent a private dwelling, 2024 bulletin, Table 7.1), so the 'excluding rent' label removes only about 1.3% of spending; there is no imputed rent to remove, unlike the German and Dutch entries, whose spending figures carry imputed rent that was removed. Comparability. The German entry is the average of real one-person households (including pensioners) and the Serbian one an equivalised average household, so the two are not like for like; the HICP of Serbia is flagged 'definition differs'. The 2025 values were published on 9 April 2026; the database table carries the status 'A' (normal) for all values and we saw no provisional marking.

02

Rent, 1–3 bed

7.4/10
$636–$2,012

/mo

2026curated

Global Property Guide - Serbia rental yields: median asking rents by bedroom count for Belgrade and Novi Sad (page "Last update Aug 2026"; GPG credits Global Property Guide and Srbija-nekretnine listings), with City Expert zone price levels of 26 November 2025

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Aug 31, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Global Property Guide's Serbia table (page "Last update Aug 2026, next update Feb 2027", yields labelled Q3 2026; source line "Global Property Guide and Srbija-nekretnine"; GPG says it takes asking rents and list prices from a leading local property platform) gives median monthly asking rents for "Belgrade (all locations)": studio EUR 450, 1-bedroom EUR 650, 2-bedroom EUR 1,000, 3-bedroom EUR 1,600 (4+ bedrooms EUR 2,200). The 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom medians reappear on GPG's per-bedroom pages (serbia/2-bed-rent, serbia/3-bed-rent, labelled "Last update Nov 2026"). Its purchase prices for the same classes (EUR 99,000 / 132,000 / 200,000 / 280,000) stand in the ratio 30 : 40 : 60.6 : 84.8, so the classes behave like flats of about 30 / 40 / 60 / 85 m2 (an inference; GPG states no areas). GPG has no district split, so the centre/outside cells apply a zone ratio (a city figure times a zone multiplier, the construction Brno and Amsterdam use). Ratio source: City Expert's Belgrade table of 26 November 2025 (EUR per m2 a month for one-bedroom flats of around 50 m2): Stari Grad 12-13 (taken as 12.5), Vracar 10, New Belgrade 10, outer areas 7-8 (taken as 7.5). Centre = Stari Grad and Vracar, mean 11.25; outside = New Belgrade and the outer areas, mean 8.75; reference = mean of the two, 10.0; factors 1.125 (centre) and 0.875 (outside), so each city-wide median is the midpoint of its centre and outside cells. EUR centre / outside: studio 506 / 394, 1br 731 / 569, 2br 1,125 / 875, 3br 1,800 / 1,400. Converted at 1.1179 USD per EUR (ECB euro reference rate of 2026-11-03) and rounded to the dollar: studio $566 / $440, 1br $817 / $636, 2br $1,258 / $978, 3br $2,012 / $1,565. City-wide: studio $503, 1br $727, 2br $1,118, 3br $1,789.
Notes
ASKING RENTS FOR A NEW LEASE, NOT TRANSACTION OR STATISTICAL RENTS. Serbia has no official rent level: the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ) reports are built on its Register of Real Estate Prices, which holds sale contracts certified by notaries and courts (rgz.gov.rs, "Izvestaji o stanju na trzistu nepokretnosti"), and carry no lease data; the Statistical Office housing pages show sale prices of new-build flats and consumer price indices, but no rent level (stat.gov.rs, searched 2026-11-03); the National Bank of Serbia refuses automated requests and was not read. EXCLUDES UTILITIES: Serbian rents are normally quoted without bills and building charges (City Expert, "Renting an apartment commission-free in Belgrade: a guide for foreigners in 2026", 13 Feb 2026: bills and utilities are in most cases paid separately); none of the sources says so for its own series. MOSTLY FURNISHED: Serbian listings are predominantly furnished and no source splits furnished from unfurnished, so cells are blended asking rents. ROOM COUNT, NOT BEDROOMS: Serbian ads count rooms (sobe) - garsonjera = studio, jednosoban (one room plus kitchen) = 1br, dvosoban (living room plus one bedroom) = 2br, trosoban (living room plus two bedrooms) = 3br. Global Property Guide labels the same classes 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom; its purchase prices imply floor areas of about 30 / 40 / 60 / 85 m2, which is the repo convention, but a dvosoban of 60 m2 has one bedroom in English-language ads. DERIVED: the room-count medians are directly sourced (all locations); the centre/outside split is a ratio from a different source and quarter, built from rounded ranges in an agency blog with no stated sample, and the "outside" zone mixes New Belgrade with the outer areas unweighted. Savski venac, the third central municipality, has no figure in the City Expert table. LEVELS DISAGREE ACROSS PORTALS: the Indomio network (Nekretnine.rs, Kuce.rs, Srbija-nekretnine.rs) average for March 2026 is EUR 14.45 per m2 (Biznis Kurir, 15 April 2026), which times 30 / 40 / 60 / 85 m2 gives EUR 434 / 578 / 867 / 1,228, i.e. GPG's medians are 4% / 12% / 15% / 30% higher; City Expert's own 2026 ranges for central and nearby areas are studio EUR 450-700, 2-bedroom EUR 650-1,000, 3-bedroom EUR 900-1,500, so GPG's 2br and 3br sit at or above the top of them; Halo oglasi (28 Aug 2025) puts an average Vracar one-room (jednosoban) flat at EUR 500. Treat the level as the upper-middle of the observed asking range. Premium stock lifts the portal averages (Belgrade Waterfront asks EUR 20-30 per m2, Cordon study of about 1,000 November 2025 ads, Property Forum, 12 Nov 2025). Rents fell 10-30% in most municipalities in 2025 after the 2022-23 peak (City Expert, 2 April 2025).

03

Freelancer tax

8.7/10
11.5%
2026curated

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (ZPDG arts. 15a, 33a, 37a, 38, 87-89; ZDOSO arts. 22, 36-44, 52a; lowest contribution base RSD 51,297 per Sl. glasnik RS 112/25; Tax Administration guides of April 2026)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jan 1, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Best eligible scheme = rs-preduzetnik (preduzetnik keeping double-entry books who pays themselves a personal salary at the lowest contribution base) at €60,000 revenue = RSD 7,044,108 (117.4018 RSD per EUR) with 10% deductible expenses (RSD 704,411), profit RSD 6,339,697. Personal salary RSD 51,297 a month = 615,564 a year, gross, including its own levies and deducted as a business expense. Contributions on the salary only: (24% + 10.3% + 0.75%) = 35.05% x 51,297 = 17,979.60 a month = 215,755.18 a year. Income tax on the salary: 10% x (51,297 - 34,221) = 1,707.60 a month = 20,491.20 a year. Income tax on the rest of the profit: 10% x (6,339,697 - 615,564) = 572,413.30. Annual personal income tax (ZPDG art. 87-89) with the 2025 average annual salary of RSD 1,813,032 (3x = 5,439,096; 6x = 10,878,192; personal deduction 40% = 725,213): counted income = 6,339,697 - 215,755.18 - 20,491.20 - 572,413.30 = 5,531,037.32; income for taxation = 5,531,037.32 - 5,439,096 = 91,941.32; the personal deduction is capped at 50% = 45,970.66; taxable 45,970.66 x 10% = 4,597.07 (nil for a taxpayer under 40). Levies = 215,755.18 + 20,491.20 + 572,413.30 + 4,597.07 = 813,256.75 of RSD 7,044,108 = 11.55%, rounded to 11.5 (808,659.68 = 11.48% for a taxpayer under 40). Of this, contributions are 3.1 points (RSD 215,755) and income tax 8.5 points (RSD 597,502).
Notes
The figure is a steady state for a tax resident below pension age: single, no children, no other income, health insurance paid in Serbia, no accounting fees. Why this scheme wins: the other eligible setups cost more at this size. A frilenser (rs-freelancer, norm-cost model 2: 10% tax, 24% PIO and 10.3% health on income after RSD 66,733 a quarter plus 34% of gross) pays RSD 1,941,305 (27.6%); with model 1 it pays RSD 3,584,625 (50.9%); if the freelancer is insured on another basis and owes no health contribution it pays RSD 1,489,941 (21.2%). The DOO with the owner as founder-director and all profit distributed (rs-doo-owner: contributions on the lowest base, 15% profit tax, 15% dividend tax) pays RSD 1,915,149 (27.2%). The paušal scheme (rs-preduzetnik-pausal) is not eligible at this revenue because the turnover limit is RSD 6,000,000 (about €51,100); it would cost RSD 1,158,504 (16.4%), a fixed amount that does not depend on income (RSD 214,300 paušal income a month for NACE 62.01/62.02, the same in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis). A keeping-books entrepreneur who pays no personal salary owes 35.05% contributions on the whole profit and would pay between about 30.0% and 40.5% of revenue (RSD 2.11 to 2.86 million) depending on how the contribution base is read, so the salary is the standard choice; the minimum salary buys only minimum pension and health rights. What the figure excludes: accounting fees (double-entry books are compulsory), VAT (€60,000 is below the RSD 8,000,000 limit; above it registration is compulsory, and services to foreign business clients are outside Serbian VAT), advance payments, foreign tax credits and treaties, and any registration fees. The annual income tax uses the 2025 salary thresholds because the 2026 average salary is published only in 2027; the real 2026 thresholds will be higher, so the annual tax of RSD 4,597 will most likely be nil. Fees from one client that meet five of the nine criteria of the test of independence are taxed as other income at 20% plus contributions on the gross amount with no norm costs, which would make this setup much dearer.

Safety

8.7/10
1.15/100k
2024open data

Eurostat — Intentional homicide victims in largest cities by sex (crim_hom_vcit), city Belgrade (RS001C), national police statistics supplied by Serbia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Eurostat table crim_hom_vcit (dataset updated 2026-04-29; latest year 2024; read 2026-11-03), city Belgrade (RS001C), sex total, unit number: victims of intentional homicide (ICCS 0101, completed; attempts are a separate category, 0102) 23, 19, 23, 20 and 12 in 2020–2024 = 97 over five years. Divided by the sum of RZS mid-year population estimates for Grad Belgrade (table 18010403: 1,694,480 + 1,688,667 + 1,684,259 + 1,683,229 + 1,682,720 = 8,433,355): 97 / 8,433,355 × 100,000 = 1.15 per 100,000 per year. A five-year average because yearly counts for one city are small (yearly rates 1.36, 1.13, 1.37, 1.19 and 0.71). For scale, the 2018 and 2019 counts are 35 and 21, and the 2022–2024 rate alone is 1.09.
Notes
VICTIMS OF COMPLETED HOMICIDE as supplied to Eurostat by Serbia; the table does not name the Serbian authority (the police figures are national police statistics) and gives no per-100,000 rate for the later years, so the rate is computed here. The city is the administrative City of Belgrade: Eurostat's own 2014 rate for Belgrade (2.57 per 100,000 on 43 offences) implies a population of about 1.67 million. The table does not say whether a victim is counted by the place of the offence or by residence, so victims who live elsewhere may be in the numerator and not in the denominator. The same source's offence table (crim_hom_ocit) gives 23, 19, 23, 20 and 12 for 2020–2024, and the NUTS-3 table (crim_gen_reg, Beogradska oblast) 23, 20, 23, 21 and 12, so the three Eurostat tables differ by at most one case a year. Populations for 2020–2021 are on the earlier 2011-census base (series break in 2022, about 0.3% for Belgrade). Eurostat has no 2025 figure yet. Serbia's national count in the same Eurostat series is 54 completed intentional homicides in 2024 (about 0.8 per 100,000) against 116 attempted ones; Belgrade's 97 victims in 2020–2024 compare with about 350 completed intentional homicides recorded nationally in the same five years.

Air quality

4.3/10
19.3 µg/m³
2025open data

European Environment Agency — Air Quality Statistics (E1a validated), station RS0032A "Belgrade-Stari grad" (Serbian national AQ network, run by the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency)

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Validated (E1a, verification flag 1) 2025 annual mean of the one urban background PM2.5 station in Belgrade's state-network data: RS0032A Belgrade-Stari grad 19.281 µg/m³ at 96.47% coverage (background, urban; 44.8211°N 20.4591°E, 0.4 km from the city-centre point; hourly series from an automatic analyser). Queried from the EEA statistics service on 2026-11-03 (calculated 2026-10-31): Country = Serbia, pollutant PM2.5, ReportingYear 2025, aggregation "Annual mean / 1 calendar year", source flow "E1a/validated data AQ e-Reporting" (11 Serbian PM2.5 stations in all); the EEA City field is empty for Serbian stations, so stations were placed in Belgrade by name and coordinates. Urban and suburban background stations are what the EEA itself averages for its city figures; Belgrade has one, so the value is that station's.
Notes
NETWORK: the state (national) network of the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA, network NET-RS002A "Serbian national AQ network"); every Serbian PM2.5 series in the EEA 2025 set is an hourly series (observation frequency "hour"), none is a daily gravimetric sample. Other Belgrade station in the same set: RS0028A Belgrade-Mostar 21.760 µg/m³ at 98.57% (traffic, urban; 2.2 km from the centre point); the mean of the two is 20.52. A third state-network station inside the administrative city, RS0051A Obrenovac-Centar (traffic, urban, 26.864 µg/m³ at 96.78%), belongs to Obrenovac, a separate town 27 km south-west of the centre, and is left out. 2024, same two stations: Stari grad 21.331 (97.77%), Mostar 21.327 (95.73%). Cross-check: SEPA's annual report "Izveštaj o stanju kvaliteta vazduha 2024" (sepa.gov.rs/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Vazduh2024.pdf, Table 10) gives 21 µg/m³ for both stations, as the EEA's rounded 2024 values; SEPA's 2025 report is not yet published (its 2024 report appeared in January 2026). The same table lists 36 Belgrade measuring points from the state network and local networks (among them the city public health institute and the water utility BVK), with 2024 annual means of 18 to 29 µg/m³ (unweighted mean 22.6, rounded integers as published), the highest at Leštane 29, Lazarevac 28 and Veliki Crljeni, Borča, Obrenovac and Zemun 27; those stations are not in the EEA 2025 set. Above the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³; below Serbia's annual limit value of 25 µg/m³ (SEPA report), though SEPA classes the Belgrade agglomeration as over-polluted in 2024 on PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 exceedances at other stations.

Internet

2.0/10
26 Mbps
2023open data

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Serbia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2023
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Median of the 343 daily country-median download values (field download_MED) for RS in 2023 (1,450,318 download tests, the sum of dl_samples_day; daily medians ranged 18.4-32.4 Mbps). With an odd number of days the median is the middle (172nd) value, 26.148 Mbps, shown as 26.15. 2023 is the year used across the dataset (same calculation as the German, Dutch and Austrian entries). The file holds one row per histogram bucket per day; the daily fields are identical across a day's rows, so each day was counted once.
Notes
M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised fibre or cable speeds; it is comparable only within this criterion. Monthly medians of the daily values ran from 23.5 Mbps (January) to 28.9 Mbps (September). M-Lab's public file has no values for 22 days of 2023 (29 January to 15 February except 10 February, 24 April, 30 July, 19 November and 30-31 December), so the median covers 343 of 365 days. The same calculation gives 25.2 Mbps for 2022 (353 days, 1,345,809 tests, but daily medians swing from 7.3 to 187.8, a much noisier year); M-Lab's 2024 file for Serbia covers only 86 days (median 29.7 Mbps, 430,506 tests) and there is no 2025 file, so 2023 is the newest full year. We did not check how M-Lab's geolocation treats addresses in Kosovo, so whether the 'RS' aggregate contains any is not confirmed. Context only, a different measure: the regulator RATEL's quarterly market review for Q2 2026 (https://www.ratel.rs/storage/upload/2026/09/Q2-2026-(1).pdf) counts about 2.26 million fixed broadband subscriptions and says the majority of subscribers have contracted access speeds of more than 100 Mbit/s; that is a subscribed speed, not a measured one, so it is not comparable with the M-Lab figure, and the NetTest averages RATEL publishes were not found.

English

7.0/10
High
2025survey

EF English Proficiency Index 2025 - Serbia (rank 25/123, score 578, High band)

Research

Data as of
Nov 1, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Serbia ranks 25th of 123 countries and regions with 578 points, inside EF's High band (550 to 599, per EF's 'About EPI' page), with a green marker of +10 points against the previous score on EF's country page; the global average is 488. By skill: reading 587, listening 574, writing 536, speaking 499. Regions: Vojvodina 587, Southern and Eastern Serbia 554, Sumadija and Western Serbia 520 (the page also lists Kosovo, 565, which is outside this profile). Cities: Belgrade 594, Novi Sad 580. By my count from the 24 names shown on EF's overview page, 20 European countries score above Serbia (Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Finland, Poland, Latvia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Czechia); EF's page does not state Serbia's European position in text. Banded 'high', like Bulgaria (594), Greece (592) and Czechia (582) in this dataset, and above Albania (532) and Moldova (531), which are 'moderate'. Second source (self-reported, not English-specific): Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Adult Education Survey 2022 (release no. 293 of 31.10.2023, Eurostat method): 87% of respondents aged 18 to 69 say they speak one foreign language, about 60% two and about 42% three or more, and the release says 'most respondents use English, followed by Russian, German, French and Hungarian'; its chart gives English 52.8%, Russian 18.7%, German 5.7%, French 4.3%, Hungarian 1.2% and other 17.3% without naming the base of the 100%. Eurostat's table edat_aes_l21 (ages 25 to 64, 2022) gives 11.9% with no foreign language, 55.8% with one, 25.3% with two and 6.9% with three or more. The release notes that the languages of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia count as foreign languages, so these shares overstate English. Doubt: EF's index is built from adults who took EF's own test (2.2 million in 2025, per EF's overview page), a self-selected group, and speaking is Serbia's weakest skill (499, at the top of EF's Low band); outside Belgrade, Novi Sad and the service sector English cannot be assumed, and the language of public offices (Serbian) was not re-read at an official source for this value. EF's score decides the band.

Private health

no verified data
2026official

National Bank of Serbia, Insurance Sector in Serbia, Second Quarter Report 2026 (voluntary health insurance market); Serbian insurers' own pages (Uniqa, DDOR, Wiener Staedtische, Triglav, Generali, Dunav); PIO Fund and Tax Administration for the public-system contribution

Official source

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Honest gap on the criterion's figure, with the nearest sourced anchors below. WHY NO NUMBER. The criterion asks for the median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private cover (outpatient plus inpatient, about $100k, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old. Serbian insurers publish almost no tariffs for such cover. DDOR (packages Bronzani 1 and 2, Srebrni, Zlatni; modules from EUR 1,000 to EUR 100,000), Wiener Staedtische (tiers of EUR 1,000-3,000, EUR 10,000-50,000 and EUR 100,000), Triglav (outpatient EUR 1,000-5,000; outpatient plus inpatient EUR 5,000-100,000), Generali (Total Medic) and Dunav publish product descriptions without prices; Dunav says the premium 'depends on the sum insured, duration, breadth of cover, entry age and other bases'. DDOR's calculator is a form asking for name, telephone and e-mail, Triglav's calculator posts to a server behind a reCAPTCHA, and Wiener asks the visitor to 'request an offer'; none of these was used (personal data or bot checks). Only Uniqa Serbia embeds a tariff table in a public page (dzo.uniqa.rs, calculator by age group, read 2026-11-03). For ages 31-35 it shows EUR 22.56 a month for Vital Start 1,000 (outpatient, EUR 1,000 annual budget), EUR 28.81 for Vital Start 2,000 and EUR 83.43 for Vital Elegant 10,000 (outpatient plus hospital treatment, maternity and delivery, EUR 10,000 annual budget) = EUR 1,001.16 a year = $1,119 for the top package. The page says the prices are informative, apply to people without previously diagnosed chronic conditions, may change after the health questionnaire and are contracted in dinars at the middle rate of the day; its footer carries a 2019 copyright line, so the date of the tariff is unclear, but the EUR 22.56 equals the outpatient component of a Uniqa 'informative offer' dated 30.01.2025 (EUR 30.65 a month = 22.56 + 8.09 for the yearly check-up), so the tariff looks unchanged since January 2025. That is one insurer and an annual limit of EUR 10,000, not the criterion's cover of about $100k, so it cannot stand next to the German $7,335 for unlimited cover; the same reasoning kept Croatia's cheap supplementary product out of its comprehensive figure. MARKET RANGE FROM A BROKER (not an insurer, not an official body). Respect Serbia's page lists monthly premium ranges across insurers for ages 30-39: EUR 13-18 (EUR 1,000 outpatient), EUR 28-38 (EUR 3,000 outpatient) and EUR 58-68 (EUR 50,000 outpatient plus hospital, maternity, check-up, physiotherapy) = EUR 696-816 a year = $778-$912 for the EUR 50,000 package. This is indicative of the market, not a quote, and shows that cover above EUR 50,000 is not priced publicly. Generali's policy for foreigners, which Generali says is needed to regulate a stay in Serbia, has a sum insured of EUR 5,000 and covers only sudden illness and accidents; it is not comprehensive. MARKET CONTEXT. The NBS says voluntary health insurance was 12.8% of all insurance premium in the second quarter of 2026 (RSD 104.3 bn in total), up 11.5% on the same quarter of 2025, with three insurers holding 61.8% of the segment; the statistics give no premium per insured person. WHAT A RESIDENT PAYS INSIDE THE PUBLIC SYSTEM (not this value; already counted elsewhere). Public health insurance with the National Health Insurance Fund is compulsory for employees and for entrepreneurs, who pay the contribution themselves (Welcome to Serbia portal). The health contribution rate is 10.30% (Tax Administration bulletin for the self-employed, English; 5.15% each for employee and employer when wages are paid). Contributions cannot be calculated on a base below the minimum monthly base, which is RSD 51,297 for 2026 (35% of the average wage; the maximum is RSD 732,820; PIO Fund notice of 9 January 2026). A self-employed person who takes no salary therefore pays at least RSD 5,283.59 a month for health = RSD 63,403 a year = EUR 540 = $604, and at most RSD 75,480.46 a month = RSD 905,766 a year = EUR 7,715 = $8,625 at the maximum base. A self-employed person who is also employed by another employer, or retired, is not liable for health contributions when paying personal wages. This health contribution is already one component of the freelancer tax burden in the tax schemes, so it must not be added to a private premium. Private cover in Serbia is a supplement chosen for faster access to private clinics, not a substitute for the compulsory contribution. FOR FOREIGN NATIONALS. DDOR says foreign nationals with temporary residence may take out its voluntary insurance; Wiener says the insured must be a natural person with a registered address in Serbia; Generali says a Serbian-issued voluntary policy is needed for a temporary-residence application (Generali's statement; the Law on Foreigners was not checked). Conversions: RSD 117.4018 per EUR (Eurostat, September 2026 average of the NBS rate) and USD 1.1179 per EUR (ECB, 2026-11-03). NOT READ. Dunav's, Sogaz's, Grawe's and international (IPMI) insurers' prices; Wiener's, DDOR's and Triglav's tariffs behind their quote forms; any insurer price for cover near $100k. If a number is wanted later, the only defensible candidates are the Uniqa figure above (one insurer, EUR 10,000 limit) or the public-system minimum contribution ($604, a different thing).
What the tags meanofficial — live figure from a government or authorityopen data — open dataset (Eurostat, EEA, M-Lab, UdSC…)survey — survey or index estimatecurated — SettleMetric-assembled estimate — open the source for the method

02

What it costs you per month

A planning estimate: real asking rent plus a cost-of-living basket scaled to your household. Not a quote.

Household
Lifestyle
Location
Estimated total
$1,145/mo

≈ $13,740 / year

Where it goes
  • Rent (1-bed)$636
  • Food & non-alcoholic beverages$189
  • Housing utilities & dwelling upkeep (water, electricity, gas, heating fuels, maintenance)$76
  • Transport$46
  • Miscellaneous goods & services (personal care, personal items, other services)$31
  • Communication$29
  • Recreation & culture$27
  • Clothing & footwear$24
  • Alcoholic beverages & tobacco$23
  • Health (out-of-pocket)$21
  • Furnishings, household equipment & routine maintenance$20
  • Restaurants & hotels$17
  • Education$6
  • Living costs$509

Rent from the asking-rent matrix below. Living costs scale a one-person basket ($509/mo) by household size and lifestyle; the equivalence factors are our assumption. Schooling and one-off setup are excluded.

03

Cost of living

What a single person spends each month — food, utilities, transport, eating out and the rest — excluding rent.

Typical monthly spending (national average)

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS) — Household Budget Survey 2025: monthly individual consumption of households by COICOP group (database table 01010201), per consumption unit

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
RZS' average monthly spending per household in 2025 by COICOP group, in RSD (database table 01010201, read 2026-11-03): Food & non-alcoholic beverages 40,169; Housing utilities & dwelling upkeep 17,659 less rent 1,369; Transport 9,868; Miscellaneous goods & services 6,560; Communication 6,087; Recreation & culture 5,767; Clothing & footwear 5,179; Alcoholic beverages & tobacco 4,823; Health 4,386; Furnishings, household equipment & routine maintenance 4,302; Restaurants & hotels 3,654; Education 1,333 (total 109,787; the twelve groups add exactly to it). Each line / 2.03 consumption units per household (2024 bulletin, Table 6.1) / 117.4018 RSD per EUR x 1.1179 USD per EUR (Eurostat ert_bil_eur_m, September 2026 monthly average of the National Bank of Serbia rate; ECB euro reference rate of 2026-11-03). Housing is shown without actual rent (1,287 RSD in the 2024 bulletin, lifted to 1,369 RSD in 2025 with the Serbian HICP for actual rentals, x1.0638). Raw sum $508.55; the items, rounded by largest remainder, sum to $509, the cost-of-living-single figure.
Notes
Lines are RZS' twelve COICOP groups, regrouped only by name; the structure is that of the average household (not of one-adult households) scaled to one consumption unit, so it is not the structure of an observed one-adult household: in Eurostat's one-adult data for Serbia (2020, without rent) food is 40% and housing utilities and upkeep 21% of spending, against 37% and 15% here, and food here includes the value of own production. 'Housing utilities & dwelling upkeep' holds, in the 2024 bulletin's sub-lines per household a month: electricity 5,020 RSD, firewood and other solid fuels 3,811, district heating and hot water 1,367, water 1,004, gas 665, refuse collection 462, sewage 108, other housing services 318, maintenance materials 864 and maintenance services 1,119 RSD, 14,740 RSD in all (16,027 less 1,287 rent, which matches the sub-lines exactly). 'Recreation & culture' and 'Restaurants & hotels' together are 8.6% of the 2025 total. 'Health' is out-of-pocket spending. 'Miscellaneous' is RZS' group 'other personal items and other services' (personal care and personal effects, insurance, other services). Each line carries rounding of up to about $0.5. Same caveats as cost-of-living-single (equivalised average household, not a measured single person; Kosovo not covered; 2025 survey data published 9 April 2026).
total509 USD/mo
01Food & non-alcoholic beverages189 USD
02Housing utilities & dwelling upkeep (water, electricity, gas, heating fuels, maintenance)76 USD
03Transport46 USD
04Miscellaneous goods & services (personal care, personal items, other services)31 USD
05Communication29 USD
06Recreation & culture27 USD
07Clothing & footwear24 USD
08Alcoholic beverages & tobacco23 USD
09Health (out-of-pocket)21 USD
10Furnishings, household equipment & routine maintenance20 USD
11Restaurants & hotels17 USD
12Education6 USD

Serbia's household-budget basket for a single person, excluding rent. Non-rent costs vary little between cities — the city-specific part is rent, shown under Housing below.

01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)country-level509USD/month, single person, excluding rent10.0

What this measures

Monthly cost of a defined single-person basket (food, transport, utilities, mobile+internet, modest leisure) excluding rent, curated from national statistics office price data and large local retailers' published prices, converted to USD at the ECB rate recorded in fx-rates. The method field of each value itemizes the basket inputs.

Lower is betterUSD/month, single person, excluding rentre-verified every 365 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS) — Household Budget Survey (Anketa o potrošnji domaćinstava) 2025: average monthly individual consumption of households by COICOP group (database table 01010201), converted to one consumption unit (one adult) with the survey's equivalence scale

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
RZS publishes no spending figure for one-person households, only household averages, so the construct used is the survey's own one-adult unit: the consumption unit. Inputs. (1) Household Budget Survey 2025, all households, average monthly individual consumption 109,787 RSD per household (RZS database table 01010201 'Personal household consumption, monthly average', Serbia total, last updated 2026-04-09, read 2026-11-03; the twelve COICOP groups add exactly to the total; the same figure is in RZS' statistical release of 9 April 2026). The 2025 survey is already in 2025 prices, so no price uplift is applied. (2) Consumption units: the 2024 final bulletin (Household Budget Survey 2024, Bulletin 724, https://publikacije.stat.gov.rs/G2025/pdfE/G20255724.pdf, Table 6.1) gives 2.03 consumption units per household on the OECD scale the survey applies (head of household 1, every other member aged 14 and over 0.7, child under 14 0.5; 2.57 members per household); the 2023 bulletin has the same 2.03. The 2025 bulletin is not out, so 2.03 is applied to 2025. (3) Rent: the survey has no imputed rent (consumption means expenditure plus the value of own-produced food, drink and firewood), so only actual rent is removed. The 2024 bulletin (Table 3.1) shows 993 RSD of 'actual rentals paid by tenants' and 294 RSD of 'other actual rentals' per household a month (1,287 RSD, 1.3% of spending) inside the housing group; lifted to 2025 with the Serbian HICP for actual rentals (Eurostat prc_hicp_aind, CP041, annual averages 167.7 in 2024 and 178.4 in 2025, x1.0638) it is 1,369 RSD. Arithmetic. 109,787 - 1,369 = 108,418 RSD per household; / 2.03 = 53,408 RSD per consumption unit a month. RSD to USD = amount / 117.4018 RSD per EUR (Eurostat ert_bil_eur_m, September 2026 monthly average of the National Bank of Serbia rate) x 1.1179 USD per EUR (ECB euro reference rate of 2026-11-03): 53,408 / 117.4018 = EUR 454.91; x 1.1179 = USD 508.55, shown as $509. The 12 lines (RZS COICOP groups, housing without rent) are summed in cost-breakdown.
Notes
What the figure is. It is not a measured one-person household: it is the average private household of Serbia (permanent residents; collective households are not covered; Kosovo is not covered) divided by the survey's 2.03 consumption units, that is, what one adult would spend if the household's spending followed the OECD scale. It includes the value of own production (food, drink, firewood), so rural households weigh in, and the food share is high (36.6% of 2025 spending). It is a national average, not a budget for a foreign remote worker in Belgrade: in 2024 Belgrade-region households spent 108,400 RSD a month against 98,165 RSD nationally (+10%) with 2.42 members against 2.57 (2024 bulletin, Table 3.1). Precision. 2024: 6,227 households surveyed (70% of the 8,856 planned); the 95% interval for the 2024 household mean is 96,119 to 100,180 RSD (coefficient of variation about 1%), so sampling error is about 2%; we did not find the 2025 sample size. Why consumption units. The alternatives are per member (109,787 - 1,369 = 108,418 RSD / 2.57 members = $402), which understates one adult because it counts children and spreads shared costs over more people, or a one-person household, which RZS does not publish. A check against observed one-adult households: Eurostat's harmonised Household Budget Survey tables hold Serbian data for the reference years 2015 and 2020 by household type (hbs_exp_t134, hbs_str_t211, hbs_str_t224, hbs_car_t313; updated October 2025). One-adult households (28.8% of households in 2020, a group that includes many pensioners) spent 7,749 PPS a year per household in 2020 and 8,127 in 2015 against 14,285 and 14,355 for all households, but Eurostat's version includes imputed rent (252 per mille of one-adult spending and 161 per mille of all-household spending in 2020, which RZS' national tables do not). Without actual and imputed rent, one-adult households spent 48.2% of the all-household figure in 2020 and 51.3% in 2015, against 1/2.03 = 49.3% under the survey's scale; applied to the 108,418 RSD those shares give $497 (2020) and $529 (2015), about 2% below and 4% above the $509 shown. The ratio is SettleMetric arithmetic on Eurostat's tables, and the 2020 round is not a published RZS result (RZS says its own 2020 survey was interrupted by the pandemic). Other checks. The 2024 survey (98,165 RSD, 1,287 rent, 2.03 units, 2024 prices) gives $454; lifted to 2025 with the Serbian all-items HICP (151.1 to 157.3, x1.041; flagged by Eurostat 'definition differs') it is $473, 7% below the measured 2025 survey, because RZS' household spending rose 11.8% in nominal terms in 2025 (109,787 against 98,165), faster than prices. Removing rent by the 2024 share of the housing group (8.03%) instead of the rental index gives $508. Rent. Serbia is a country of owners (83.2% of households own their dwelling and 4.0% rent a private dwelling, 2024 bulletin, Table 7.1), so the 'excluding rent' label removes only about 1.3% of spending; there is no imputed rent to remove, unlike the German and Dutch entries, whose spending figures carry imputed rent that was removed. Comparability. The German entry is the average of real one-person households (including pensioners) and the Serbian one an equivalised average household, so the two are not like for like; the HICP of Serbia is flagged 'definition differs'. The 2025 values were published on 9 April 2026; the database table carries the status 'A' (normal) for all values and we saw no provisional marking.

04

Housing

What it costs to rent, by apartment type and location.

Asking rent by apartment type & location

Global Property Guide - Serbia rental yields: median asking rents by bedroom count for Belgrade and Novi Sad (page "Last update Aug 2026"; GPG credits Global Property Guide and Srbija-nekretnine listings), with City Expert zone price levels of 26 November 2025

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Aug 31, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Global Property Guide's Serbia table (page "Last update Aug 2026, next update Feb 2027", yields labelled Q3 2026; source line "Global Property Guide and Srbija-nekretnine"; GPG says it takes asking rents and list prices from a leading local property platform) gives median monthly asking rents for "Belgrade (all locations)": studio EUR 450, 1-bedroom EUR 650, 2-bedroom EUR 1,000, 3-bedroom EUR 1,600 (4+ bedrooms EUR 2,200). The 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom medians reappear on GPG's per-bedroom pages (serbia/2-bed-rent, serbia/3-bed-rent, labelled "Last update Nov 2026"). Its purchase prices for the same classes (EUR 99,000 / 132,000 / 200,000 / 280,000) stand in the ratio 30 : 40 : 60.6 : 84.8, so the classes behave like flats of about 30 / 40 / 60 / 85 m2 (an inference; GPG states no areas). GPG has no district split, so the centre/outside cells apply a zone ratio (a city figure times a zone multiplier, the construction Brno and Amsterdam use). Ratio source: City Expert's Belgrade table of 26 November 2025 (EUR per m2 a month for one-bedroom flats of around 50 m2): Stari Grad 12-13 (taken as 12.5), Vracar 10, New Belgrade 10, outer areas 7-8 (taken as 7.5). Centre = Stari Grad and Vracar, mean 11.25; outside = New Belgrade and the outer areas, mean 8.75; reference = mean of the two, 10.0; factors 1.125 (centre) and 0.875 (outside), so each city-wide median is the midpoint of its centre and outside cells. EUR centre / outside: studio 506 / 394, 1br 731 / 569, 2br 1,125 / 875, 3br 1,800 / 1,400. Converted at 1.1179 USD per EUR (ECB euro reference rate of 2026-11-03) and rounded to the dollar: studio $566 / $440, 1br $817 / $636, 2br $1,258 / $978, 3br $2,012 / $1,565. City-wide: studio $503, 1br $727, 2br $1,118, 3br $1,789.
Notes
ASKING RENTS FOR A NEW LEASE, NOT TRANSACTION OR STATISTICAL RENTS. Serbia has no official rent level: the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ) reports are built on its Register of Real Estate Prices, which holds sale contracts certified by notaries and courts (rgz.gov.rs, "Izvestaji o stanju na trzistu nepokretnosti"), and carry no lease data; the Statistical Office housing pages show sale prices of new-build flats and consumer price indices, but no rent level (stat.gov.rs, searched 2026-11-03); the National Bank of Serbia refuses automated requests and was not read. EXCLUDES UTILITIES: Serbian rents are normally quoted without bills and building charges (City Expert, "Renting an apartment commission-free in Belgrade: a guide for foreigners in 2026", 13 Feb 2026: bills and utilities are in most cases paid separately); none of the sources says so for its own series. MOSTLY FURNISHED: Serbian listings are predominantly furnished and no source splits furnished from unfurnished, so cells are blended asking rents. ROOM COUNT, NOT BEDROOMS: Serbian ads count rooms (sobe) - garsonjera = studio, jednosoban (one room plus kitchen) = 1br, dvosoban (living room plus one bedroom) = 2br, trosoban (living room plus two bedrooms) = 3br. Global Property Guide labels the same classes 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom; its purchase prices imply floor areas of about 30 / 40 / 60 / 85 m2, which is the repo convention, but a dvosoban of 60 m2 has one bedroom in English-language ads. DERIVED: the room-count medians are directly sourced (all locations); the centre/outside split is a ratio from a different source and quarter, built from rounded ranges in an agency blog with no stated sample, and the "outside" zone mixes New Belgrade with the outer areas unweighted. Savski venac, the third central municipality, has no figure in the City Expert table. LEVELS DISAGREE ACROSS PORTALS: the Indomio network (Nekretnine.rs, Kuce.rs, Srbija-nekretnine.rs) average for March 2026 is EUR 14.45 per m2 (Biznis Kurir, 15 April 2026), which times 30 / 40 / 60 / 85 m2 gives EUR 434 / 578 / 867 / 1,228, i.e. GPG's medians are 4% / 12% / 15% / 30% higher; City Expert's own 2026 ranges for central and nearby areas are studio EUR 450-700, 2-bedroom EUR 650-1,000, 3-bedroom EUR 900-1,500, so GPG's 2br and 3br sit at or above the top of them; Halo oglasi (28 Aug 2025) puts an average Vracar one-room (jednosoban) flat at EUR 500. Treat the level as the upper-middle of the observed asking range. Premium stock lifts the portal averages (Belgrade Waterfront asks EUR 20-30 per m2, Cordon study of about 1,000 November 2025 ads, Property Forum, 12 Nov 2025). Rents fell 10-30% in most municipalities in 2025 after the 2022-23 peak (City Expert, 2 April 2025).
ASKING RENTS FOR A NEW LEASE, NOT TRANSACTION OR STATISTICAL RENTS. Serbia has no official rent level: the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ) reports are built on its Register of Real Estate Prices, which holds sale contracts certified by notaries and courts (rgz.gov.rs, "Izvestaji o stanju na trzistu nepokretnosti"), and carry no lease data; the Statistical Office housing pages show sale prices of new-build flats and consumer price indices, but no rent level (stat.gov.rs, searched 2026-11-03); the National Bank of Serbia refuses automated requests and was not read. EXCLUDES UTILITIES: Serbian rents are normally quoted without bills and building charges (City Expert, "Renting an apartment commission-free in Belgrade: a guide for foreigners in 2026", 13 Feb 2026: bills and utilities are in most cases paid separately); none of the sources says so for its own series. MOSTLY FURNISHED: Serbian listings are predominantly furnished and no source splits furnished from unfurnished, so cells are blended asking rents. ROOM COUNT, NOT BEDROOMS: Serbian ads count rooms (sobe) - garsonjera = studio, jednosoban (one room plus kitchen) = 1br, dvosoban (living room plus one bedroom) = 2br, trosoban (living room plus two bedrooms) = 3br. Global Property Guide labels the same classes 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom; its purchase prices imply floor areas of about 30 / 40 / 60 / 85 m2, which is the repo convention, but a dvosoban of 60 m2 has one bedroom in English-language ads. DERIVED: the room-count medians are directly sourced (all locations); the centre/outside split is a ratio from a different source and quarter, built from rounded ranges in an agency blog with no stated sample, and the "outside" zone mixes New Belgrade with the outer areas unweighted. Savski venac, the third central municipality, has no figure in the City Expert table. LEVELS DISAGREE ACROSS PORTALS: the Indomio network (Nekretnine.rs, Kuce.rs, Srbija-nekretnine.rs) average for March 2026 is EUR 14.45 per m2 (Biznis Kurir, 15 April 2026), which times 30 / 40 / 60 / 85 m2 gives EUR 434 / 578 / 867 / 1,228, i.e. GPG's medians are 4% / 12% / 15% / 30% higher; City Expert's own 2026 ranges for central and nearby areas are studio EUR 450-700, 2-bedroom EUR 650-1,000, 3-bedroom EUR 900-1,500, so GPG's 2br and 3br sit at or above the top of them; Halo oglasi (28 Aug 2025) puts an average Vracar one-room (jednosoban) flat at EUR 500. Treat the level as the upper-middle of the observed asking range. Premium stock lifts the portal averages (Belgrade Waterfront asks EUR 20-30 per m2, Cordon study of about 1,000 November 2025 ads, Property Forum, 12 Nov 2025). Rents fell 10-30% in most municipalities in 2025 after the 2022-23 peak (City Expert, 2 April 2025).
ApartmentCentralOutside centre
Studio566 USD/mo440 USD/mo
1-bedroom817 USD/mo636 USD/mo
2-bedroom1,258 USD/mo978 USD/mo
3-bedroom2,012 USD/mo1,565 USD/mo

05

Climate

Temperature and rainfall through the year, plus air quality.

Monthly normals — Belgrade

NOAA/WMO Climatological Standard Normals 1991–2020 — Beograd (WMO 13274), Serbia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2020
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
WMO 1991–2020 station normals for BEOGRAD (WMO 13274, WIGOS 0-20000-0-13274, 44°47′54″N 20°27′53″E, 132 m), NCEI accession 0253808, version 6.6 (the latest version in the archive; the Serbia/CSV directory holds exactly three stations: Beograd 13274, Niš 13388 and Novi Sad 13168). tMin = parameter code 4 (mean daily minimum), tMax = code 3 (mean daily maximum), precipMm = code 1 (monthly precipitation total). All 36 cells are populated (checked by parsing the file, no blank cells); the Serbian files carry no number-of-years rows, so the 30-year basis is the WMO normals period, not something the file itself shows. Annual precipitation 699.1 mm (equal to the sum of the twelve months); annual mean temperature 13.1 °C (code 5).
Notes
Station choice: the WMO archive has one station for Beograd (Serbia has three in all), a synoptic station of the Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia (RHMZ); it lies 2.3 km south-south-east of the city-centre point used for the coordinates. Cross-check against the RHMZ: the RHMZ station page (hidmet.gov.rs, moss_id 13274) publishes normals for 1961–1990 and 1981–2010 only, with no 1991–2020 table, so the 1991–2020 comparison rests on the normals quoted in the RHMZ monthly bulletins ("Mesečni bilten za Srbiju", hidmet.gov.rs/data/klimatologija/latin/), which show a station's 1991–2020 normal only where it appears in a ranking table: mean-temperature normals for June (21.9 °C) and August (23.8 °C) in the bulletins' ranking Table 1 against the WMO file's mean temperature (code 5) of 21.7 and 23.7 °C, i.e. +0.2 and +0.1 °C, and the August precipitation normal 55.1 mm, identical to the WMO file's 55.1 mm. All compared values agree within 0.2 °C or exactly. Against the RHMZ's earlier 1981–2010 normal the WMO file reads warmer: annual mean 13.1 °C against 12.5 °C, and annual precipitation 699.1 mm against 690.9 mm. The station is the Belgrade station in Vračar (the RHMZ names it "Beograd - Vračar"), inside the built-up area.
Daytime high °CNighttime low °CRainfall mm
-1°15°30°050100mmJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJanuary — high 5.2°C, low -0.7°C, rainfall 47.9 mmFebruary — high 7.8°C, low 0.6°C, rainfall 43.5 mmMarch — high 13.1°C, low 4.2°C, rainfall 48.7 mmApril — high 18.8°C, low 8.8°C, rainfall 51.5 mmMay — high 23.6°C, low 13.2°C, rainfall 72.4 mmJune — high 27.1°C, low 16.7°C, rainfall 95.6 mmJuly — high 29.3°C, low 18.4°C, rainfall 66.6 mmAugust — high 29.7°C, low 18.5°C, rainfall 55.1 mmSeptember — high 24.3°C, low 14.1°C, rainfall 58.6 mmOctober — high 18.7°C, low 9.4°C, rainfall 54.8 mmNovember — high 12.2°C, low 5.1°C, rainfall 49.6 mmDecember — high 6.1°C, low 0.5°C, rainfall 54.8 mm

Average day/night temperature (lines, left axis) and total rainfall (bars, right axis) for each month — 1991–2020 normals. Hover a month for exact figures.

Month by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daytime high °C5.2°7.8°13.1°18.8°23.6°27.1°29.3°29.7°24.3°18.7°12.2°6.1°
Nighttime low °C-0.7°0.6°4.2°8.8°13.2°16.7°18.4°18.5°14.1°9.4°5.1°0.5°
Rainfall mm484449527296675559555055
01Climate comfort5pleasant months/year5.0

What this measures

Number of months whose 1991–2020 climate normals satisfy: mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and monthly precipitation under 150mm. Computed from the city's climate-normals indicator; the raw normals are stored alongside so users can judge by their own taste.

Higher is betterpleasant months/yearre-verified every 3650 days

Curated by SettleMetric

SettleMetric computation over Beograd climate-normals (WMO 13274)

Data as of
Dec 31, 2020
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Count of months with mean daily max 15–28 °C and precipitation < 150 mm, from the 1991–2020 normals: Apr (18.8 °C), May (23.6), Jun (27.1), Sep (24.3) and Oct (18.7) qualify = 5. Mar (13.1 °C) and Nov (12.2) miss the 15 °C threshold; Jul (29.3 °C) and Aug (29.7) are above 28 °C; no month reaches 150 mm (wettest: Jun 95.6 mm).
02Air quality (PM2.5)19.3µg/m³, annual mean PM2.54.3

What this measures

Annual mean fine-particulate (PM2.5) concentration for the city, latest available year. Anchors follow the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³ → 10) through the EU limit value territory (25 µg/m³ → 2). Preferred source: European Environment Agency city-level air quality data; outside Europe: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database or the national monitoring network.

Lower is betterµg/m³, annual mean PM2.5re-verified every 730 days

Open data

European Environment Agency — Air Quality Statistics (E1a validated), station RS0032A "Belgrade-Stari grad" (Serbian national AQ network, run by the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency)

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Validated (E1a, verification flag 1) 2025 annual mean of the one urban background PM2.5 station in Belgrade's state-network data: RS0032A Belgrade-Stari grad 19.281 µg/m³ at 96.47% coverage (background, urban; 44.8211°N 20.4591°E, 0.4 km from the city-centre point; hourly series from an automatic analyser). Queried from the EEA statistics service on 2026-11-03 (calculated 2026-10-31): Country = Serbia, pollutant PM2.5, ReportingYear 2025, aggregation "Annual mean / 1 calendar year", source flow "E1a/validated data AQ e-Reporting" (11 Serbian PM2.5 stations in all); the EEA City field is empty for Serbian stations, so stations were placed in Belgrade by name and coordinates. Urban and suburban background stations are what the EEA itself averages for its city figures; Belgrade has one, so the value is that station's.
Notes
NETWORK: the state (national) network of the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA, network NET-RS002A "Serbian national AQ network"); every Serbian PM2.5 series in the EEA 2025 set is an hourly series (observation frequency "hour"), none is a daily gravimetric sample. Other Belgrade station in the same set: RS0028A Belgrade-Mostar 21.760 µg/m³ at 98.57% (traffic, urban; 2.2 km from the centre point); the mean of the two is 20.52. A third state-network station inside the administrative city, RS0051A Obrenovac-Centar (traffic, urban, 26.864 µg/m³ at 96.78%), belongs to Obrenovac, a separate town 27 km south-west of the centre, and is left out. 2024, same two stations: Stari grad 21.331 (97.77%), Mostar 21.327 (95.73%). Cross-check: SEPA's annual report "Izveštaj o stanju kvaliteta vazduha 2024" (sepa.gov.rs/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Vazduh2024.pdf, Table 10) gives 21 µg/m³ for both stations, as the EEA's rounded 2024 values; SEPA's 2025 report is not yet published (its 2024 report appeared in January 2026). The same table lists 36 Belgrade measuring points from the state network and local networks (among them the city public health institute and the water utility BVK), with 2024 annual means of 18 to 29 µg/m³ (unweighted mean 22.6, rounded integers as published), the highest at Leštane 29, Lazarevac 28 and Veliki Crljeni, Borča, Obrenovac and Zemun 27; those stations are not in the EEA 2025 set. Above the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³; below Serbia's annual limit value of 25 µg/m³ (SEPA report), though SEPA classes the Belgrade agglomeration as over-polluted in 2024 on PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 exceedances at other stations.

06

Safety

How safe daily life is, from official crime statistics.

01Homicide rate1.2intentional homicides per 100,000/year8.7

What this measures

Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 population, latest available year. Country level: UNODC national series. City level: official municipal/police statistics where published; otherwise null (country value shown as country-level).

Lower is betterintentional homicides per 100,000/yearre-verified every 730 days

Open data

Eurostat — Intentional homicide victims in largest cities by sex (crim_hom_vcit), city Belgrade (RS001C), national police statistics supplied by Serbia

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Eurostat table crim_hom_vcit (dataset updated 2026-04-29; latest year 2024; read 2026-11-03), city Belgrade (RS001C), sex total, unit number: victims of intentional homicide (ICCS 0101, completed; attempts are a separate category, 0102) 23, 19, 23, 20 and 12 in 2020–2024 = 97 over five years. Divided by the sum of RZS mid-year population estimates for Grad Belgrade (table 18010403: 1,694,480 + 1,688,667 + 1,684,259 + 1,683,229 + 1,682,720 = 8,433,355): 97 / 8,433,355 × 100,000 = 1.15 per 100,000 per year. A five-year average because yearly counts for one city are small (yearly rates 1.36, 1.13, 1.37, 1.19 and 0.71). For scale, the 2018 and 2019 counts are 35 and 21, and the 2022–2024 rate alone is 1.09.
Notes
VICTIMS OF COMPLETED HOMICIDE as supplied to Eurostat by Serbia; the table does not name the Serbian authority (the police figures are national police statistics) and gives no per-100,000 rate for the later years, so the rate is computed here. The city is the administrative City of Belgrade: Eurostat's own 2014 rate for Belgrade (2.57 per 100,000 on 43 offences) implies a population of about 1.67 million. The table does not say whether a victim is counted by the place of the offence or by residence, so victims who live elsewhere may be in the numerator and not in the denominator. The same source's offence table (crim_hom_ocit) gives 23, 19, 23, 20 and 12 for 2020–2024, and the NUTS-3 table (crim_gen_reg, Beogradska oblast) 23, 20, 23, 21 and 12, so the three Eurostat tables differ by at most one case a year. Populations for 2020–2021 are on the earlier 2011-census base (series break in 2022, about 0.3% for Belgrade). Eurostat has no 2025 figure yet. Serbia's national count in the same Eurostat series is 54 completed intentional homicides in 2024 (about 0.8 per 100,000) against 116 attempted ones; Belgrade's 97 victims in 2020–2024 compare with about 350 completed intentional homicides recorded nationally in the same five years.
Crime by offence typecountry-levelpolice-recorded per 100,000 · 2024

Eurostat — police-recorded offences by category (crim_off_cat, ICCS, unit P_HTHAB), Serbia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Police-recorded offences per 100,000 inhabitants, 2024 (Eurostat, updated 2026-04-29; ICCS categories: theft 0502, burglary 0501, robbery 0401, serious assault 020111, drug offences 0601, sexual violence 0301; denominator 6,605,168 residents on 1 January 2024, RZS estimates; Kosovo is not covered, see safety-homicide-rate). In counts: 13,923 thefts, 6,816 burglaries (2,337 of them in private residential premises, 35.38 per 100,000), 11,859 drug offences, 4,987 serious assaults, 574 robberies and 489 sexual-violence offences (100 rape and 389 sexual assault; Eurostat lists 112 offences of sexual exploitation, ICCS0302, separately). Serbia reports all six categories for every year from 2008 to 2024. Trend since 2015: theft fell from 344.13 to 210.79 per 100,000, burglary from 316.27 to 103.19 (35.38 in private homes against 77.46 in 2015), robbery from 42.65 to 8.69, drug offences rose from 80.20 to 160.11 in 2019 and 179.54 in 2024 (the highest since 2008), sexual violence from 3.53 to 9.63 in 2021 and 7.40 in 2024. Two breaks in the Serbian series, neither explained in the Eurostat tables we read: serious assault jumps from 18.25 per 100,000 in 2017 (1,285 cases) to 98.61 in 2018 (6,904), a factor of 5.4 while no other category moves, and burglary and theft jump together between 2012 and 2013 (burglary 243.96 to 441.33, theft 248.04 to 430.02), so the 2024 serious-assault level is on the post-2018 basis (the earlier basis was probably narrower; we could not confirm what changed, so use 2018 onwards for assault and 2014 onwards for theft and burglary). The 2024 values carry no Eurostat flags. We did not check how Serbia treats cannabis possession in its drug-offence count, so the 2024 drug figure is not adjusted for the German cannabis reform that makes German 2024 figures non-comparable. Eurostat's reference metadata does not say, in the text we read, at which stage (input, process, output) Serbia counts these offences. Recording practices and legal definitions differ between countries, so read the levels as context, not a league table.
01Theft211per 100k
02Drug offences180per 100k
03Burglary103per 100k
04Serious assault75.5per 100k
05Robbery8.7per 100k
06Sexual violence7.4per 100k

Police-recorded offences per 100,000 inhabitants, 2024 (Eurostat, updated 2026-04-29; ICCS categories: theft 0502, burglary 0501, robbery 0401, serious assault 020111, drug offences 0601, sexual violence 0301; denominator 6,605,168 residents on 1 January 2024, RZS estimates; Kosovo is not covered, see safety-homicide-rate). In counts: 13,923 thefts, 6,816 burglaries (2,337 of them in private residential premises, 35.38 per 100,000), 11,859 drug offences, 4,987 serious assaults, 574 robberies and 489 sexual-violence offences (100 rape and 389 sexual assault; Eurostat lists 112 offences of sexual exploitation, ICCS0302, separately). Serbia reports all six categories for every year from 2008 to 2024. Trend since 2015: theft fell from 344.13 to 210.79 per 100,000, burglary from 316.27 to 103.19 (35.38 in private homes against 77.46 in 2015), robbery from 42.65 to 8.69, drug offences rose from 80.20 to 160.11 in 2019 and 179.54 in 2024 (the highest since 2008), sexual violence from 3.53 to 9.63 in 2021 and 7.40 in 2024. Two breaks in the Serbian series, neither explained in the Eurostat tables we read: serious assault jumps from 18.25 per 100,000 in 2017 (1,285 cases) to 98.61 in 2018 (6,904), a factor of 5.4 while no other category moves, and burglary and theft jump together between 2012 and 2013 (burglary 243.96 to 441.33, theft 248.04 to 430.02), so the 2024 serious-assault level is on the post-2018 basis (the earlier basis was probably narrower; we could not confirm what changed, so use 2018 onwards for assault and 2014 onwards for theft and burglary). The 2024 values carry no Eurostat flags. We did not check how Serbia treats cannabis possession in its drug-offence count, so the 2024 drug figure is not adjusted for the German cannabis reform that makes German 2024 figures non-comparable. Eurostat's reference metadata does not say, in the text we read, at which stage (input, process, output) Serbia counts these offences. Recording practices and legal definitions differ between countries, so read the levels as context, not a league table.

Hate crime (police-recorded)country-levelpolice-recorded · 2024

OSCE ODIHR Hate Crime Reporting — Serbia (official police-recorded data)

Official source

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
ODIHR 2024: 47 hate crimes recorded by the police, 18 prosecuted and 11 sentenced (the page: 'The above data refer to the number of reported, indicted and convicted persons, not the number of criminal acts', and the figures 'include offences of incitement to hatred, violence at sport and discrimination/violation of equality, most of which fall outside the OSCE hate crime definition'). Earlier years (police-recorded / prosecuted / sentenced): 2023 53/4/2, 2022 94/11/6, 2021 109/11/11, 2020 66/5/4, 2019 86/14/10, 2018 61/12/7, 2017 5/0/0, 2016 9/1/2, 2015 79/7/19, 2014 87/21/14, 2013 64/24/16, 2012 36/39/37, 2011 39/36/24, 2010 37/35/13, 2009 82/16/44; the 2017 and 2016 values (5 and 9) are far below every other year and are not explained on the page. By bias motivation, from ODIHR's data export for 2024 (hatecrime.osce.org/download_data_per_country/1023/2024), counting only the offence types that export lists: racist and xenophobic 11 (2 physical assaults, 1 vandalism, 4 threats, 4 other), anti-LGBTI 9 (3 physical assaults, 2 threats, 1 theft or robbery, 1 damage to property, 2 other), anti-Muslim 3 (2 threats, 1 harassment), anti-Roma 1 (other), anti-Christian 1 (other); no anti-Semitic, gender-based or disability cases are listed. These add up to 25, below the headline 47, because, as the page says, 'some of the crimes reported to ODIHR were excluded from the breakdown ... as they fall outside the OSCE hate crime definition', so the racist and xenophobic figure is a partial count of the 47, not a share of it. ODIHR's key observation: Serbia reports regularly, but its recording and statistics 'do not sufficiently distinguish hate crimes from other crimes', and police and prosecutors would benefit from capacity building. Not comparable across countries: the count depends on the legal definition, how police flag a bias motive and how willing victims are to report.
47
recorded by police
11
racist / xenophobic

ODIHR 2024: 47 hate crimes recorded by the police, 18 prosecuted and 11 sentenced (the page: 'The above data refer to the number of reported, indicted and convicted persons, not the number of criminal acts', and the figures 'include offences of incitement to hatred, violence at sport and discrimination/violation of equality, most of which fall outside the OSCE hate crime definition'). Earlier years (police-recorded / prosecuted / sentenced): 2023 53/4/2, 2022 94/11/6, 2021 109/11/11, 2020 66/5/4, 2019 86/14/10, 2018 61/12/7, 2017 5/0/0, 2016 9/1/2, 2015 79/7/19, 2014 87/21/14, 2013 64/24/16, 2012 36/39/37, 2011 39/36/24, 2010 37/35/13, 2009 82/16/44; the 2017 and 2016 values (5 and 9) are far below every other year and are not explained on the page. By bias motivation, from ODIHR's data export for 2024 (hatecrime.osce.org/download_data_per_country/1023/2024), counting only the offence types that export lists: racist and xenophobic 11 (2 physical assaults, 1 vandalism, 4 threats, 4 other), anti-LGBTI 9 (3 physical assaults, 2 threats, 1 theft or robbery, 1 damage to property, 2 other), anti-Muslim 3 (2 threats, 1 harassment), anti-Roma 1 (other), anti-Christian 1 (other); no anti-Semitic, gender-based or disability cases are listed. These add up to 25, below the headline 47, because, as the page says, 'some of the crimes reported to ODIHR were excluded from the breakdown ... as they fall outside the OSCE hate crime definition', so the racist and xenophobic figure is a partial count of the 47, not a share of it. ODIHR's key observation: Serbia reports regularly, but its recording and statistics 'do not sufficiently distinguish hate crimes from other crimes', and police and prosecutors would benefit from capacity building. Not comparable across countries: the count depends on the legal definition, how police flag a bias motive and how willing victims are to report.

07

Infrastructure

Internet speed and how parcels get to your door.

01Domestic delivery qualitycountry-levelGood7.0

What this measures

Quality of in-country parcel delivery. excellent = nationwide next-day widely available, dense parcel-locker network, real-time tracking standard; good = 1–3 day delivery, lockers in major cities; basic = reliable but slow (3–7 days), mostly to-door or post-office pickup; poor = unreliable delivery, street addresses often unusable, informal workarounds common. Classified from official service/coverage data of the national postal operator and the two largest private carriers; inputs itemized in each value's method field.

Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days

Curated by SettleMetric

RATEL (postal regulator) - Quality of postal services in 2024 and express-service benchmark, with Pošta Srbije, D Express, City Express, AKS Express and BEX Express official pages (composite)

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Classified from the regulator's measurements and the carriers' own pages, read on 2026-11-03. RATEL measured the express services of the five operators with more than 1% of the market (AKS Express, BEX Express, City Express, D Express, Post Express of Pošta Srbije) in the last quarter of 2024 and publishes a three-year table (RATEL, 'Quality of postal services in 2024', table 15.14, and the benchmark report of May 2025): average transit time 1.16 days in 2022, 1.26 in 2023 and 1.21 in 2024; items delivered within one day 87.29%, 80.5% and 83.31%; items taking over five days 0.18%, 3.16% and 0.59%; items lost 0.18%, 0.31% and 0.26%; pick-up requests not carried out 15.57%, 35.20% and 24.19%; courier arrival after a pick-up request 3 h 47 min, 4 h 16 min and 4 h 23 min. RATEL itself attributes the weaker 2023 figures to a strike at the national operator in November 2023. Pošta Srbije (national operator): 'close to 1,800 access points and 3,500 delivery districts', more than 1,550 post offices and 6,255 settlements served (its 'Pošta danas' page); its Post Express courier service covers all settlements, takes items at counters in more than 1,100 places, collects at the address in more than 140 settlements for 'Today for tomorrow', offers 'Today for today' in 45 places, and 'Today for now' (as published) in 1,100 places, and 900 parcel machines are available (Pošta news of 25 March 2026, which also reports that Post Express was the best-rated express service in RATEL's 2025 customer survey, with 79.6% of respondents using it). Its parcel-locker site says more than 540 locations for parcels without payment, 154 locations at NIS Petrol and Gazprom stations and 40 outside Lidl stores for parcels with payment, open 24/7, 48 hours to collect (pages published 2025, modified 14 January 2026). D Express: 300 lockers in 80 towns, 24/7, at petrol stations, supermarkets and shopping centres, 2 working days to collect (own pages); 35 parcel shops, 27 delivery depots, about 14 million parcels in 2025, 1,300 staff (Austrian Post release of 21 July 2026); 'Danas za sutra' collects until 17:00 and delivers within 24 h or by 14:00 the next day, 'Dan za dan' same-day delivery between 16:00 and 21:00 inside Belgrade and Novi Sad (own FAQ and service pages); real-time tracking and SMS notices at the parcel shops. City Express: lockers at more than 200 locations (own page). AKS Express: 20 centres with warehouses, 850 staff, lockers with card payment (own pages; locker count loaded dynamically and not read). BEX Express: parcel shops and lockers (counters on its home page are scripts and were not readable), real-time tracking and 'otkupnina (pouzeće)' in its service list. Next-day delivery is the typical result and is sold nationwide, tracking is standard, and three or four locker networks exist side by side; but 17% of items are slower than one day, a quarter of pick-up requests fail in the regulator's test, and the locker counts above are company claims that overlap in unknown ways and were not counted independently, so 'good' rather than 'excellent'.
Notes
Four caveats. (1) The regulator's benchmark samples items from five operators in one quarter; it does not cover all parcels, and 2024 is the latest year published. (2) Locker figures: Pošta 'about 900' (news) against 540 + 154 + 40 on its locker site (the two may not add up the same way), D Express 300, City Express 200+; AKS and BEX counts not read; not added together. (3) Market change: Austrian Post announced on 21 July 2026 that it would buy 100% of D Express and merge it with its subsidiary City Express; City Express's own home page reports the purchase completed on 1 October 2026 (Austrian Post's release says completion was subject to regulatory approval); the two networks are to be merged gradually, so the counts above will change. (4) Access limits: posta.rs answers curl with HTTP 403 on its home page (its news, FAQ, 'Pošta danas' and locker pages were readable), postexpress.rs refused connections, and the Internet Archive refused automated requests (HTTP 429) on 2026-11-03, so Post Express's own service pages were not read; its delivery times come from Pošta's news item and the regulator. Fees, prices and weekend delivery were not assessed.
02International delivery easecountry-levelMinor friction7.0

What this measures

Ease of receiving goods from abroad. seamless = major international carriers deliver door-to-door, meaningful duty-free de-minimis threshold, customs clearance predictable in days; minor-friction = carriers present but low de-minimis, extra paperwork or routine delays; significant-friction = frequent customs holds, high brokerage fees, some marketplaces refuse to ship; unreliable = parcels regularly lost or blocked, informal import channels dominate. De-minimis thresholds and clearance rules from the national customs authority (official source, cite the regulation); carrier presence from carriers' official pages.

Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days

Official source

Customs Administration of Serbia (Uprava carina) - questions and answers on postal consignments (page updated 2026-05-14) with the Pošta Srbije FAQ on import duties

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Serbia is outside the EU customs union, so every parcel from abroad, the EU included, passes customs. RULES for postal consignments (Customs Administration page and Pošta Srbije FAQ, read 2026-11-03): consignments fall into four groups. (1) Documents, letters, Braille mail and consignments up to EUR 70 sent free of charge from one natural person to another: no import duty and no VAT. (2) Small non-commercial consignments up to EUR 50, and advertising material and samples to legal entities: VAT only. (3) Consignments above EUR 50 (above EUR 70 for private gifts) up to EUR 3,000: a single import duty rate of 10% on the customs value, plus VAT of 20% on the value plus the duty (together 32%); the customs value includes postage, except that postage is not counted for consignments up to EUR 50. The page's examples: a EUR 100 phone with postage included costs EUR 132 with duty and VAT; EUR 80 shoes with EUR 10 postage carry EUR 9 duty and EUR 19.80 VAT; a EUR 5 book with EUR 5 postage carries EUR 1 VAT; amounts are charged in dinars at the NBS rate. (4) Above EUR 3,000 the regular customs procedure and the tariff rates apply. VAT is charged on all consignments whatever their value (Law on VAT Article 3(2), cited by the page), apart from the private gifts in group 1; duty is charged only above EUR 50 (Customs Law Articles 245 and 247, Decree on customs privileges Articles 6 and 26, as cited by the page). The recipient can check the charge at app1.carina.rs/info/portal/posta. FEES ON TOP. Besides the duties, Pošta Srbije charges the recipient a service for representing the recipient in preparing the electronic customs declaration (or presenting the item for inspection), a commission for transferring the customs debt, and storage charges, 'in accordance with its tariff' (Customs page; Pošta FAQ). Pošta told Tanjug that it has charged these since 23 February 2026 (report of 15 March 2026 on 021.rs). The amounts were not found in an official source: the consumer association Efektiva, quoted in the same report, gives RSD 200 for the customs service plus RSD 60 (or 1% above EUR 50) for the payment commission, about EUR 2.2 in all; a web-search summary mentioned RSD 150; neither is confirmed. From the same date Pošta introduced automatic reading of value and content so that items from foreign platforms can be delivered the day after arrival (Tanjug; not independently checked), and unregistered commercial items such as AliExpress parcels are processed as registered ones. CARRIERS. International price lists are registered with the regulator RATEL for Pošta Srbije, DHL, UPS (Express Courier), FedEx (Flying Cargo YU), GLS, D Express and CDEK among others; D Express advertises delivery to 210 countries, road transit of 4-8 working days and air transit of 2-5 working days not counting customs time, with two delivery attempts. CLASSIFICATION. 'minor-friction': carriers are present and the rule is simple (one duty rate, one VAT rate, everything in dinars), but the duty-free line is low (EUR 50), VAT applies to nearly everything, and the recipient pays an extra service fee at delivery. Not 'significant-friction' because no current evidence of frequent customs holds or high brokerage fees was found: older press reports of parcels held for weeks (2023) predate the February 2026 automation and were not re-verified. Albania, Montenegro and Moldova are 'significant-friction' in this dataset on comparable rules, so a stricter reading is possible. NOT READ. The legal texts themselves (Customs Law, Decree on customs privileges, VAT Law); the rules for express-courier consignments, which may differ from postal ones; dhl.com (timed out), UPS and FedEx pages; clearance times; whether marketplaces refuse to ship to Serbia.
03Internet speedcountry-level26.2Mbps, median fixed download2.0

What this measures

Median fixed-broadband download speed over the trailing 6 months from M-Lab NDT open data (CC0), aggregated at country or city level. Not comparable with Ookla figures (different test methodology) — do not mix sources within this criterion.

Higher is betterMbps, median fixed downloadre-verified every 365 days

Open data

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Serbia

Data as of
Dec 31, 2023
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Median of the 343 daily country-median download values (field download_MED) for RS in 2023 (1,450,318 download tests, the sum of dl_samples_day; daily medians ranged 18.4-32.4 Mbps). With an odd number of days the median is the middle (172nd) value, 26.148 Mbps, shown as 26.15. 2023 is the year used across the dataset (same calculation as the German, Dutch and Austrian entries). The file holds one row per histogram bucket per day; the daily fields are identical across a day's rows, so each day was counted once.
Notes
M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised fibre or cable speeds; it is comparable only within this criterion. Monthly medians of the daily values ran from 23.5 Mbps (January) to 28.9 Mbps (September). M-Lab's public file has no values for 22 days of 2023 (29 January to 15 February except 10 February, 24 April, 30 July, 19 November and 30-31 December), so the median covers 343 of 365 days. The same calculation gives 25.2 Mbps for 2022 (353 days, 1,345,809 tests, but daily medians swing from 7.3 to 187.8, a much noisier year); M-Lab's 2024 file for Serbia covers only 86 days (median 29.7 Mbps, 430,506 tests) and there is no 2025 file, so 2023 is the newest full year. We did not check how M-Lab's geolocation treats addresses in Kosovo, so whether the 'RS' aggregate contains any is not confirmed. Context only, a different measure: the regulator RATEL's quarterly market review for Q2 2026 (https://www.ratel.rs/storage/upload/2026/09/Q2-2026-(1).pdf) counts about 2.26 million fixed broadband subscriptions and says the majority of subscribers have contracted access speeds of more than 100 Mbit/s; that is a subscribed speed, not a measured one, so it is not comparable with the M-Lab figure, and the NetTest averages RATEL publishes were not found.

08

Healthcare

What comprehensive private medical cover costs.

01Private healthcare costcountry-levelno verified data—

What this measures

Median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private medical insurance (outpatient + inpatient, ~$100k coverage, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old resident foreigner, from local and international insurers. Method field lists the insurers quoted.

Lower is betterUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldre-verified every 365 days

Honest gap on the criterion's figure, with the nearest sourced anchors below. WHY NO NUMBER. The criterion asks for the median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private cover (outpatient plus inpatient, about $100k, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old. Serbian insurers publish almost no tariffs for such cover. DDOR (packages Bronzani 1 and 2, Srebrni, Zlatni; modules from EUR 1,000 to EUR 100,000), Wiener Staedtische (tiers of EUR 1,000-3,000, EUR 10,000-50,000 and EUR 100,000), Triglav (outpatient EUR 1,000-5,000; outpatient plus inpatient EUR 5,000-100,000), Generali (Total Medic) and Dunav publish product descriptions without prices; Dunav says the premium 'depends on the sum insured, duration, breadth of cover, entry age and other bases'. DDOR's calculator is a form asking for name, telephone and e-mail, Triglav's calculator posts to a server behind a reCAPTCHA, and Wiener asks the visitor to 'request an offer'; none of these was used (personal data or bot checks). Only Uniqa Serbia embeds a tariff table in a public page (dzo.uniqa.rs, calculator by age group, read 2026-11-03). For ages 31-35 it shows EUR 22.56 a month for Vital Start 1,000 (outpatient, EUR 1,000 annual budget), EUR 28.81 for Vital Start 2,000 and EUR 83.43 for Vital Elegant 10,000 (outpatient plus hospital treatment, maternity and delivery, EUR 10,000 annual budget) = EUR 1,001.16 a year = $1,119 for the top package. The page says the prices are informative, apply to people without previously diagnosed chronic conditions, may change after the health questionnaire and are contracted in dinars at the middle rate of the day; its footer carries a 2019 copyright line, so the date of the tariff is unclear, but the EUR 22.56 equals the outpatient component of a Uniqa 'informative offer' dated 30.01.2025 (EUR 30.65 a month = 22.56 + 8.09 for the yearly check-up), so the tariff looks unchanged since January 2025. That is one insurer and an annual limit of EUR 10,000, not the criterion's cover of about $100k, so it cannot stand next to the German $7,335 for unlimited cover; the same reasoning kept Croatia's cheap supplementary product out of its comprehensive figure. MARKET RANGE FROM A BROKER (not an insurer, not an official body). Respect Serbia's page lists monthly premium ranges across insurers for ages 30-39: EUR 13-18 (EUR 1,000 outpatient), EUR 28-38 (EUR 3,000 outpatient) and EUR 58-68 (EUR 50,000 outpatient plus hospital, maternity, check-up, physiotherapy) = EUR 696-816 a year = $778-$912 for the EUR 50,000 package. This is indicative of the market, not a quote, and shows that cover above EUR 50,000 is not priced publicly. Generali's policy for foreigners, which Generali says is needed to regulate a stay in Serbia, has a sum insured of EUR 5,000 and covers only sudden illness and accidents; it is not comprehensive. MARKET CONTEXT. The NBS says voluntary health insurance was 12.8% of all insurance premium in the second quarter of 2026 (RSD 104.3 bn in total), up 11.5% on the same quarter of 2025, with three insurers holding 61.8% of the segment; the statistics give no premium per insured person. WHAT A RESIDENT PAYS INSIDE THE PUBLIC SYSTEM (not this value; already counted elsewhere). Public health insurance with the National Health Insurance Fund is compulsory for employees and for entrepreneurs, who pay the contribution themselves (Welcome to Serbia portal). The health contribution rate is 10.30% (Tax Administration bulletin for the self-employed, English; 5.15% each for employee and employer when wages are paid). Contributions cannot be calculated on a base below the minimum monthly base, which is RSD 51,297 for 2026 (35% of the average wage; the maximum is RSD 732,820; PIO Fund notice of 9 January 2026). A self-employed person who takes no salary therefore pays at least RSD 5,283.59 a month for health = RSD 63,403 a year = EUR 540 = $604, and at most RSD 75,480.46 a month = RSD 905,766 a year = EUR 7,715 = $8,625 at the maximum base. A self-employed person who is also employed by another employer, or retired, is not liable for health contributions when paying personal wages. This health contribution is already one component of the freelancer tax burden in the tax schemes, so it must not be added to a private premium. Private cover in Serbia is a supplement chosen for faster access to private clinics, not a substitute for the compulsory contribution. FOR FOREIGN NATIONALS. DDOR says foreign nationals with temporary residence may take out its voluntary insurance; Wiener says the insured must be a natural person with a registered address in Serbia; Generali says a Serbian-issued voluntary policy is needed for a temporary-residence application (Generali's statement; the Law on Foreigners was not checked). Conversions: RSD 117.4018 per EUR (Eurostat, September 2026 average of the NBS rate) and USD 1.1179 per EUR (ECB, 2026-11-03). NOT READ. Dunav's, Sogaz's, Grawe's and international (IPMI) insurers' prices; Wiener's, DDOR's and Triglav's tariffs behind their quote forms; any insurer price for cover near $100k. If a number is wanted later, the only defensible candidates are the Uniqa figure above (one insurer, EUR 10,000 limit) or the public-system minimum contribution ($604, a different thing).

09

Money & crypto

Crypto rules and how freely personal money moves.

01Crypto regulationcountry-levelLegal regulated8.0

What this measures

Own classification of the legal status of holding, trading and cashing out cryptocurrency for individuals: legal-friendly (legal with clear, favourable rules or explicit tax exemptions), legal-regulated (legal under standard licensing/AML and taxation), restricted (partial bans: payments or banking access prohibited), banned (holding/trading prohibited). Classified from national regulators' and central banks' official positions.

Rated by category—re-verified every 180 days

Official source

Law on Digital Assets (Zakon o digitalnoj imovini, RS Official Gazette 153/2020, applied from 29 June 2021) with the National Bank of Serbia digital-assets page and register of virtual-currency service providers; Securities Commission registers; Law on Personal Income Tax Articles 72, 72a, 73, 77, 79a and 95

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Holding, buying, selling and cashing out cryptocurrency are legal for private persons in Serbia, under a dedicated licensing regime. REGULATION. The Law on Digital Assets (Zakon o digitalnoj imovini, RS Official Gazette No 153/2020) entered into force on 29 December 2020 and has applied since 29 June 2021 (Article 146; read in the Ministry of Finance's English translation, https://www.mfin.gov.rs//upload/media/A21I5r_62d6601427e70.pdf). The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) still cites this single gazette number on its digital-assets page on 2026-11-03 and names no amending act. Supervision is split (Article 10): the NBS is competent for virtual currencies (assets 'not issued or guaranteed by a central bank or public authority', for example bitcoin), the Securities Commission for digital tokens and for digital assets that are financial instruments, and a hybrid asset is divided by its features. A company providing digital-asset services (the nine services of Article 3: order execution, buying and selling for money, swaps between assets, custody, issuing and placing, pledge registers, acceptance and transfer of payments, portfolio management, trading platforms) needs a licence from the supervisory authority (Article 4), must have the legal form of a company (Article 52) and must hold minimum capital of EUR 20,000, 50,000 or 125,000 depending on the service (Article 54). The NBS register of virtual-currency service providers lists three licensed firms on 2026-11-03 (VESCON DOO, MCM 965 D.O.O., AX CRYPTO DOO; register numbers 500, 505, 510). The Securities Commission's register of digital-token service providers lists the same three (licences of 17.03.2023 for two and 29.05.2025 for the third) and its register of approved white papers lists 16 decisions from 26.05.2022 to 12.10.2026 (14 white papers and 2 supplements, token offerings by Serbian companies). The NBS states that providing virtual-currency services without its licence 'is prohibited under the Law on Digital Assets and considered a criminal offence under the Criminal Code'; Article 131(4)-(5) lets the supervisor ban the activity and fine a natural person who provides services without a licence RSD 30,000 to 2,000,000. WHAT THE LAW LEAVES TO INDIVIDUALS. Nothing in the law restricts who may acquire or hold digital assets: OTC trading is allowed and the parties 'are not required to use the services of any digital asset service provider' (Article 36); mining is allowed and miners may sell through a provider or OTC (Article 6); secondary trading in assets issued abroad is allowed (Article 31). LIMITS THAT TOUCH INDIVIDUALS OR THEIR BANKING. (1) In retail trade a seller may accept digital assets for goods or services only through a licensed acceptance-and-transfer provider that converts them into money; acceptance or transfer 'directly from a consumer to a trader is not allowed' (Article 97). (2) Banks, insurers, payment institutions and e-money institutions supervised by the NBS may not own digital assets or be providers or users of digital-asset services, except that banks may keep cryptographic keys (Article 13); this binds the institutions, not their customers. (3) Virtual currency cannot be contributed to a company as capital in kind and must be converted into money first (Article 14(1)). (4) Legal persons and entrepreneurs (not natural persons) that acquire virtual currency without using a licensed provider must report the holding to the NBS's Records of Virtual Currency Holders (Article 85(3); NBS notice). (5) Dinar and foreign-currency payments linked to digital-asset deals follow the payment-services and foreign-exchange rules (Article 12). (6) Licensed providers are anti-money-laundering obliged entities; simplified identification applies only below RSD 15,000 per transaction and RSD 40,000 a month or RSD 120,000 a year (AML/CFT Law Article 16a, English consolidation to Official Gazette 19/2025, hosted by the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering). TAX CONTEXT, not a criterion input. Law on Personal Income Tax, official English translation on purs.gov.rs (consolidated to Official Gazette 19/2025, in effect 14.03.2025): the transfer of digital assets is a capital gain (Article 72(1)(6)) taxed at 15% (Article 77) on the difference between the selling price and the documented acquisition cost (Article 74); an exchange of one right for another is priced at the market price of the right given (Article 73(3)), so a swap of one crypto-asset for another is a taxable transfer; mined assets that were taxed as other income under Article 85(1)(16) take that tax base as their acquisition cost (Article 74); gains on assets owned continuously for at least ten years are not capital gains (Article 72a(1)(5)); a capital loss can be offset against gains for five years (Article 78); if the sale proceeds are invested within 90 days in the share capital of a Serbian company or a Serbian-based investment fund, 50% of the tax is exempt, or 50% is refunded if invested within 12 months (Article 79a); the return is due within 120 days after the end of the quarter of the transfer (Article 95(2); the Tax Administration's news item also names form PPDG-3R). The Serbian consolidated text valid from 01.01.2026 is listed to Official Gazette 109/25, which amended Articles 15, 21, 89, 95 and 98 (Articles 72, 72a and 79a are not among them), and the Tax Administration's law page lists a later act, Official Gazette 80/26, which was not read, so the Article 95 deadline and any 2026 change are unconfirmed. CLASSIFICATION. Banded 'legal-regulated': holding, trading, mining, OTC dealing and cashing out are lawful and a working licence regime exists, but the only tax relief for private holders is a ten-year holding exemption (not the favourable one-year or time-test logic that put Germany, Portugal and Czechia in 'legal-friendly'), crypto-to-crypto swaps are taxable, and retail payment in crypto must pass through a licensed intermediary. Not 'restricted' (as Moldova, where no authorisation framework exists and paying in crypto is not permitted): a licensed route for payments exists and nothing in the law bars individuals from holding, trading or cashing out. Same band as Albania, Montenegro and Croatia in this dataset. NOT READ OR DOUBTFUL. The NBS and Securities Commission secondary legislation under the law; any NBS statement on residents using foreign exchanges that hold no Serbian licence (the prohibitions in the law target providers, and the NBS warns the public about unlicensed providers); whether Serbian banks in practice refuse crypto-related transfers; Official Gazette 80/26. The Serbian original on nbs.rs has an unreadable text layer, so the English translation was used. A stricter reading of Articles 13 and 97 would give 'restricted'.
02Financial control levelcountry-levelModerate7.0

What this measures

Own composite of state control over personal money flows: currency/capital controls (IMF AREAER), restrictions on foreign accounts and transfers, mandatory income declaration scope for residents, cash payment limits, banking access for foreigners. Low = free movement of personal funds and easy non-resident banking; very-high = strict capital controls and pervasive reporting. Method field on each value lists the inputs used.

Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Composite - Law on Foreign Exchange Operations (Zakon o deviznom poslovanju, RS Official Gazette 62/2006 ... 30/2018, 19/2025) with the NBS Decision on terms under which residents may hold foreign exchange in bank accounts abroad, the NBS decisions on foreign payments and on personal and physical transfers, Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering Article 46, and Customs Administration cash-declaration rules

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Composite, each input read at its source on 2026-11-03. Serbia is outside the EU and keeps a foreign-exchange law. (1) Convertibility and regime. Payments and transfers for current transactions between residents and non-residents 'shall be executed freely' (Law on Foreign Exchange Operations, Article 3) and capital transactions 'freely, unless stipulated otherwise' (Article 10; English consolidation to 30/2018 hosted by the Ministry of Finance, https://www.mfin.gov.rs//upload/media/KamiGh_62d6602ea0f3f.pdf). The NBS says it pursues 'a managed floating exchange rate regime' (NBS monetary-policy page). Residency (Article 2): a foreign citizen is a non-resident in the first year of stay and a resident after more than a year on a residence permit or work visa (also in the NBS guide for returnees and on the Welcome to Serbia portal). (2) Accounts abroad. Article 27 lets residents keep foreign exchange on accounts abroad only 'under the terms and conditions prescribed by the National Bank of Serbia'. The NBS Decision (Official Gazette 31/2012 ... 67/2023 and 13/2025, English text on nbs.rs) names who may do so without approval, among them foreign nationals who have resided in Serbia on a residence permit or work visa for over one year (point 2(6)), dual nationals domiciled in Serbia and Serbian nationals allowed to stay abroad up to one year (point 2(8)), emigrants and persons on professional training abroad, and lists cases that need an NBS decision (for example buying securities where the foreign market requires a local account, medical treatment abroad, construction works; point 3). When the ground ends the funds must be brought back and the account closed within 30 days. A resident who is only a Serbian national therefore cannot freely keep an account abroad; a foreigner who has passed the first year can. (3) Payments and transfers abroad. International payments go through a bank, payment institution, e-money issuer or the post, and a resident gives the bank the document that proves the payment obligation, unless bank and client agree in writing otherwise (the client then keeps the document for ten years) (NBS Decision on foreign payment transactions, 24/2007 ... 111/2015 and 13/2025). A resident natural person may transfer abroad through a bank up to EUR 10,000 a month as gifts, help to family or inheritance, more against documents (NBS Decision on personal and physical transfers, 67/2006, 52/2008, 18/2009, still listed by the NBS). A non-resident may receive any amount from abroad and send funds abroad, but from a non-resident account only after proving that tax obligations to Serbia are settled (Article 29; Welcome to Serbia portal); transfers from a non-resident savings account carry no such condition. (4) Investments abroad. Residents may buy equity securities abroad and real estate abroad freely, long-term debt of EU and OECD issuers, and other debt according to an NBS rating rule; foreign investment funds only through resident fund managers; short-term securities of EU issuers (Articles 11-17; NBS guide for returnees). (5) Domestic currency. Payments and transfers between residents, and in Serbia, must be made in dinars, with listed exceptions; contracts may be written in foreign currency but are paid in dinars (Article 34). (6) Cash between persons. Since Official Gazette 94/2024 a person selling goods, real estate or services may not accept cash of EUR 10,000 or more in dinar equivalent (single or linked payments, or contracts within one year); the sum 'must be paid using a bank account', and a natural person receiving cash on a loan or a real-estate sale contract is bound by the same limit (AML/CFT Law Article 46, English consolidation to 19/2025 on apml.gov.rs); obliged entities report cash transactions of EUR 15,000 or more (Article 47). I found no cash cap between private persons and no other cap on cash between businesses. (7) Cash across the border. Every natural person must declare physically portable means of payment of EUR 10,000 or more on entering or leaving. Foreigners arriving may bring unlimited foreign cash, get a customs certificate for the declared sum and take out up to EUR 10,000 (more only against that certificate or a bank withdrawal confirmation); foreigners living and working in Serbia for over a year may take out up to EUR 10,000; resident Serbian nationals may take out foreign currency of EUR 10,000 or more 'only on the basis of proof of emigration'; dinars only up to the EUR 10,000 equivalent per person (carina.rs pages updated 13-18 March 2026). (8) Banking access for foreigners. A non-resident natural person can open dinar and foreign-currency accounts with a passport and a document showing the place of residence during the last year; the bank applies AML due diligence and 'freely decides on the choice of clients' (Law on Banks Article 41(3)), but may not refuse on discriminatory grounds such as citizenship (Welcome to Serbia portal). Classified 'moderate': current-account convertibility, free capital transactions by default, no limit on what non-residents receive or send, no cash cap between private persons, and a foreigner can keep a foreign account once resident; but the state keeps controls that EU members do not have: document-backed foreign payments, an EUR 10,000 monthly personal-transfer limit, accounts abroad only for listed residents, dinar-only settlement at home, an EUR 10,000 cash limit for sellers and a cash-export limit for Serbian residents. Albania and Moldova are also 'moderate'. A stricter reading ('high') is defensible for a Serbian-national resident, who may not hold an account abroad.
Notes
WHAT WAS NOT READ OR IS DOUBTFUL. (a) The law was amended by Official Gazette 19/2025 (in force 14 March 2025; the NBS Serbian consolidated text cites it). Media and legal publishers describe the amendment as being about authorised exchange offices (register kept by the NBS, suspensions, fines); its text was not read because the Serbian consolidation on nbs.rs has an unreadable text layer, so the Ministry of Finance's English consolidation (to 30/2018) was used for the articles quoted; article numbers 26-29 match in the Serbian text. (b) The IMF's exchange-system classification and Article VIII status are not cited: imf.org answered HTTP 403 and elibrary.imf.org returned an empty body, so no IMF page was read. (c) Not checked: Serbian tax reporting of foreign accounts and CRS exchange, the NBS decision on opening foreign-exchange accounts in detail, the 2011 NBS rule on documents for large cash withdrawals, and banks' practice when foreign inflows exceed the AML thresholds. (d) The Welcome to Serbia portal says foreigners who become residents may keep accounts 'in the country of which they are citizens'; the NBS decision text names no such limit for foreign nationals, but the NBS's own FAQ reads the dual-national and Serbian-abroad cases as limited to the country that issued the passport or residence document, so a similar reading may be applied to foreigners. (e) Payment cards: the guide for returnees says payments abroad by card need a supporting document such as an invoice or a hotel booking page, which banks in practice handle automatically; this was not tested. (f) The NBS FAQ on foreign-exchange rules, the NBS returnee guide (October 2019) and the Welcome to Serbia pages are explanatory; the legal text is in the law and the decisions named above.

10

Language

How far English gets you in daily life and services.

01English proficiencycountry-levelHigh7.0

What this measures

Own banding of how far English gets a resident in daily life (government offices, healthcare, housing, services). Informed by EF EPI band (research source, cited with attribution, not republished) plus official language status and service-sector realities. Values are our bands, not EF scores.

Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days

Research

EF English Proficiency Index 2025 - Serbia (rank 25/123, score 578, High band)

Data as of
Nov 1, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Serbia ranks 25th of 123 countries and regions with 578 points, inside EF's High band (550 to 599, per EF's 'About EPI' page), with a green marker of +10 points against the previous score on EF's country page; the global average is 488. By skill: reading 587, listening 574, writing 536, speaking 499. Regions: Vojvodina 587, Southern and Eastern Serbia 554, Sumadija and Western Serbia 520 (the page also lists Kosovo, 565, which is outside this profile). Cities: Belgrade 594, Novi Sad 580. By my count from the 24 names shown on EF's overview page, 20 European countries score above Serbia (Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Finland, Poland, Latvia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Czechia); EF's page does not state Serbia's European position in text. Banded 'high', like Bulgaria (594), Greece (592) and Czechia (582) in this dataset, and above Albania (532) and Moldova (531), which are 'moderate'. Second source (self-reported, not English-specific): Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Adult Education Survey 2022 (release no. 293 of 31.10.2023, Eurostat method): 87% of respondents aged 18 to 69 say they speak one foreign language, about 60% two and about 42% three or more, and the release says 'most respondents use English, followed by Russian, German, French and Hungarian'; its chart gives English 52.8%, Russian 18.7%, German 5.7%, French 4.3%, Hungarian 1.2% and other 17.3% without naming the base of the 100%. Eurostat's table edat_aes_l21 (ages 25 to 64, 2022) gives 11.9% with no foreign language, 55.8% with one, 25.3% with two and 6.9% with three or more. The release notes that the languages of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia count as foreign languages, so these shares overstate English. Doubt: EF's index is built from adults who took EF's own test (2.2 million in 2025, per EF's overview page), a self-selected group, and speaking is Serbia's weakest skill (499, at the top of EF's Low band); outside Belgrade, Novi Sad and the service sector English cannot be assumed, and the language of public offices (Serbian) was not re-read at an official source for this value. EF's score decides the band.

11

Education

International schooling options for families.

01International schools9accredited international schools, count7.1

What this measures

Count of international schools in the metro area accredited by or member of IB, CIS, COBIS, or an equivalent national-curriculum-abroad body (verified against the accreditor's public registry, not aggregator sites).

Higher is betteraccredited international schools, countre-verified every 730 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Accreditor registries: IB World Schools directory (Internet Archive captures of ibo.org), COBIS member file, AEFE directory, ZfA map of Deutsche Auslandsschulen

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Registries read on 2026-11-03: the IB World Schools directory - ibo.org answers our requests with a Cloudflare challenge, so IB profiles were read on Internet Archive captures, dated per school - namely the Serbia finder filtered to Diploma Programme schools (capture of 2025-09-01: 6 schools in Serbia, Deseta gimnazija Mihajlo Pupin, Gimnazija "Svetozar Markovic", Gimnazija Crnjanski, Gymnasium Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj, International School of Belgrade, Rudjer Boskovic School) and the all-programme Serbia finder (capture of 2022-12-02: 7 schools, the same six plus "International School"); the COBIS member file (cobis.org.uk/uploaded/cobis-school-search-map-2025.tsv, last modified 2026-10-21; 354 schools, 3 in Serbia, all in Belgrade); the AEFE directory (aefe.gouv.fr/fr/etablissements; the Serbia group holds one school); the ZfA map of German schools abroad (auslandsschulwesen.de, Deutsche Auslandsschulen world map; the Serbia entry is Belgrade). Street addresses were checked against OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) to confirm the municipality. One count per school; a school with several campuses counts once. City of Belgrade (urban municipalities Savski venac, Cukarica, New Belgrade) = 9 schools. (1) International School of Belgrade (Temisvarska 19, Senjak, Savski venac; private): IB World School since 5 April 2005, school code 002266, Diploma, Middle Years and Primary Years Programmes (finder row; authorisation dates on the profile: 5 April 2005, 28 August 2006 and 8 March 2007), English; IB profile capture of 2025-09-13, listed in the 2025-09-01 finder. (2) Rudjer Boskovic School (Kneza Viseslava 17, Cukarica; private): IB code 003055, Diploma authorised 7 April 2006, further programmes authorised 16 and 23 April 2019 (the finder row shows PYP, MYP and DP), English; profile capture of 2025-06-20, listed in the 2025-09-01 finder. (3) Gimnazija Crnjanski (Djordja Ognjanovica 2, Cukarica; private): IB code 002874, Diploma since 1 February 2006, English; profile capture of 2025-06-16, listed in the 2025-09-01 finder. (4) Deseta gimnazija "Mihajlo Pupin" (Antifasisticke borbe 1a, New Belgrade; STATE school): IB code 060821, Diploma authorised 6 February 2020, English and Serbian; profile capture of 2024-03-05, listed in the 2025-09-01 finder. (5) British International School Belgrade (Zupana Vlastimira 8, Palackova 11 and Neznanog junaka 36, Dedinje, 11040, counted once): COBIS file, "Accredited Member (BSO)". (6) Chartwell International School (COBIS map pin 44.78551, 20.45393 = Lackoviceva 6, Topcidersko brdo, Savski venac, per OpenStreetMap): COBIS file, "Member (Compliance)" - a member, not listed as accredited. (7) PRIMA International School (COBIS map pin 44.7911, 20.45786, on Humska street, Savski venac, per OpenStreetMap): COBIS file, "Member (Compliance)". (8) Ecole francaise de Belgrade (Kablarska 31/35, Savski venac): AEFE directory, partner ("conventionne") school, 15 of 15 levels homologated, 506 pupils. (9) Deutsche Schule Belgrad (Petra Cajkovskog 4, Senjak; kindergarten Sanje Zivanovica 15): listed on the ZfA world map of Deutsche Auslandsschulen; address from the school's own site.
Notes
A verified floor, not a tally. State schools with an IB Diploma stream are counted, as in the Berlin and Riga entries: 1 of the 9 (Mihajlo Pupin); leave it out and the figure is 8. Two of the 9 (Chartwell, PRIMA) are COBIS "Member (Compliance)" schools, members but not listed as accredited, as in the Kotor entry. NOT COUNTED: "International School" (Sumatovacka 45, Belgrade; private; IB code 062142, Diploma authorised 16 July 2021): it is in the 2022-12-02 finder and its profile was captured on 2024-12-10, but it is absent from the 2025-09-01 Diploma finder, so its current authorisation could not be confirmed; if it is still an IB school the figure is 10. The CIS membership directory is an interactive Salesforce map with no static list and was not read (a direct call to its data endpoint was declined), so CIS, NEASC and MSA accreditation, which the International School of Belgrade and others claim on their own sites, is not used as evidence for any school; Cambridge International's school finder renders only in a browser, so Cambridge registrations (several private Belgrade schools advertise them) were not enumerated. A PYP-only or MYP-only IB school authorised after December 2022 would be missed: the only later finder capture is filtered to the Diploma Programme. Schools teaching another country's curriculum for its own nationals (the Russian Federation's embassy school, Italian, Greek and others) were not checked against their home-country registers and are not counted. Outside the City of Belgrade nothing was found. The registry reads themselves are current (COBIS file 2026-10-21, AEFE and ZfA pages 2026-11-03) but the IB data are Internet Archive captures of 2024-2025, so a school authorised or withdrawn since is not seen.

12

Demographics

Who else lives here — the share of foreign residents and the largest national communities, from official statistics.

Openness to foreignerscountry-levelLow acceptanceGallup MAI 1.79/9 · 2019

What this measures

How accepting the resident population is of migrants and foreigners — the inverse of xenophobia, a real concern for someone relocating. Our own five-band reading (very-open / open / moderate / reserved / low) informed primarily by the Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index (0–9 scale: three questions on migrants living in the country, becoming neighbours, and marrying into the family; 2019 wave), cross-checked where available with the World Values Survey wave 7 / European Values Study 2017 question on whether people would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbours (a higher share = more hostile). Banding guide against the Gallup 0–9 score: ≥7.0 very-open, 5.5–7.0 open, 4.0–5.5 moderate, 2.5–4.0 reserved, below 2.5 low (the 2019 global average of 5.21 sits in 'moderate'). Country level only: no credible city-level survey of attitudes to foreigners exists, so on city pages the country reading is shown as country context. Gallup is a research source cited with attribution, not republished in bulk; the raw index score/year and any cross-check figure are carried inside each value. Value shape: { band, gallupMai?, gallupYear?, unwantedNeighborPct?, unwantedNeighborSource? }. Display-only: attitudinal, survey-based and ~2019 vintage, so it is shown as honest context and never folded into the composite score.

Reference data—re-verified every 1825 days

Research

Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index, 2019 update (research, attribution)

Data as of
Sep 23, 2020
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Gallup MAI 1.79 on the 0-9 scale (second administration, 2019 Gallup World Poll; article 'World Grows Less Accepting of Migrants', published 2020-09-23), in the low band (below 2.5). Serbia is third on Gallup's list of the least-accepting countries in 2019, after North Macedonia 1.49 and Hungary 1.64 and before Croatia 1.81, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1.85 and Montenegro 1.87; the world score fell from 5.34 to 5.21 between the two waves. First wave: 1.80 (fieldwork throughout 2016, article 'New Index Shows Least Accepting Countries for Migrants', 2017-08-23, https://news.gallup.com/poll/216377/new-index-shows-least-accepting-countries-migrants.aspx, full table), fourth-lowest of the 139 countries after North Macedonia 1.47, Montenegro 1.63 and Hungary 1.69, against a world score of 5.29 in that article; so the reading is stable (1.80 to 1.79) between the two waves. Gallup lists Kosovo as a separate entry (4.17 in 2016, 5.26 in 2019); we found no Gallup statement of the Serbian sampling frame, so whether the Serbian sample excludes Kosovo is not confirmed. The World Values Survey / European Values Study cross-check was not collected. Attitudinal, survey-based and about seven years old: the 2019 fieldwork pre-dates the post-2022 arrival of Russian and other foreign workers in Serbia (see foreign-population-share).
Who lives therecountry-levelforeign residents 0.8%

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS) — 2022 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings: Population by (place) country of birth and citizenship, Beogradska oblast (Grad Beograd); book 7 "Migrations", Table 4

Official source

Data as of
Sep 30, 2022
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
BASIS: all usual residents of the City of Belgrade at the census (1,681,405; critical moment 30 September 2022). RZS table 3104020703 (data.stat.gov.rs), Territory = Beogradska oblast (RS110, which is Grad Beograd), Place of birth = Total, Citizenship: only Serbian 1,563,805; Serbian and another country (dual) 104,362; only another country 13,093; without citizenship 145; these add up to 1,681,405. Foreign-citizen share = 13,093 / 1,681,405 = 0.78%. Dual citizens count as Serbian citizens and are not in this share (they are another 6.21% of residents); the 145 stateless persons are left out of the foreign count. Read 2026-11-03.
Notes
A 2022 SNAPSHOT THAT MAY NOW BE LOW. Foreign residents were counted at the census if resident for a year or longer. Since then Serbia has received many more foreigners: the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration's Migration Profile for 2025 (Ministry of the Interior data) counts 115,093 foreign nationals with a valid temporary-residence permit nationwide at the end of 2025 (93,642 a year earlier), 47.7% Russian, 13.2% Chinese, 6.5% Indian, 5.7% Turkish and 2.4% Nepali, against 33,509 foreigners with only a foreign citizenship in the whole country at the census. No official city-level breakdown of those permits was found, so no current Belgrade share can be given. The census publishes citizenship only at the level of the region and the 25 districts (oblasti), with four classes (Serbian only, Serbian and another, another only, none); the district of Belgrade coincides with the city, which is why this is a city figure. Which foreign country the citizenship is of is not published below national level, so there is no nationality breakdown for Belgrade. Persons born abroad (28,182 in other countries and 225,001 in former Yugoslav republics, mostly Serbian citizens) are a different group and are not used.
Largest communities of foreign residents115,093 total

Commissariat for Refugees and Migration — Migration Profile of the Republic of Serbia for 2025 (Ministry of Interior data on valid temporary-residence approvals, Table 12)

Official source

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Permit stock, not residents; excludes 19,612 permanently settled foreigners (Russia 7,032, China 3,690, Romania 930). 'Others' 28,177 (24.5%) not listed. Data as of 25 February 2026. Not the same basis as foreign-population-share (census 2022). The 2022 Census, the basis of foreign-population-share, publishes no split by citizenship country: the three largest groups among its 33,509 residents with only a foreign citizenship (Russian Federation 8,522, Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,259, Montenegro 2,419) are known only from an RZS reply quoted by the news site N1 on 2 October 2023, so they are context, not the value.
01Russia47.7%54,917
02China13.2%15,160
03India6.5%7,523
04Turkey5.7%6,575
05Nepal2.4%2,741

Permit stock, not residents; excludes 19,612 permanently settled foreigners (Russia 7,032, China 3,690, Romania 930). 'Others' 28,177 (24.5%) not listed. Data as of 25 February 2026. Not the same basis as foreign-population-share (census 2022). The 2022 Census, the basis of foreign-population-share, publishes no split by citizenship country: the three largest groups among its 33,509 residents with only a foreign citizenship (Russian Federation 8,522, Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,259, Montenegro 2,419) are known only from an RZS reply quoted by the news site N1 on 2 October 2023, so they are context, not the value.

13

How you can stay

How you can legally enter and stay. These apply across Serbia.

All requirements & citizenship filter

14

What you'd pay in taxes

The tax schemes a freelancer can choose from. Rules are national, the same in Belgrade as anywhere in Serbia.

Full schemes & calculator

See what you would keep

Your income against Serbia's real tax schemes — the same engine as the full calculator.

  1. 1 Preduzetnik (sole trader) keeping double-entry books, personal salary (lična zarada) at the lowest contribution base, 10% tax on the rest of the profit
    52,203 EURnet/year
    13.0% burden
  2. 2 Frilenser: individual not registered as an entrepreneur, quarterly self-assessment (PP OPO-K) of fees from foreign clients, norm-cost model 2 (10% tax) or model 1 (20% tax)
    43,464 EURnet/year
    27.6% burden
  3. 3 DOO (single-member LLC) with the owner as founder-director, no salary: contributions on the lowest base, 15% profit tax, 15% tax on the dividend
    42,022 EURnet/year
    30.0% burden
  4. 4 Preduzetnik paušalac (lump-sum taxed sole trader), IT activity NACE 62.01/62.02 - paušal income RSD 214,300 a monthover income cap
    50,132 EURnet/year
    16.4% burden

15

Who is Belgrade for?

The same place reads differently depending on why you move. Each lens pulls the facts that matter most for that plan — with sources, and the trade-offs stated plainly.

Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.

Works in your favour

Freelancer tax burden11.5%

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (ZPDG arts. 15a, 33a, 37a, 38, 87-89; ZDOSO arts. 22, 36-44, 52a; lowest contribution base RSD 51,297 per Sl. glasnik RS 112/25; Tax Administration guides of April 2026)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jan 1, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Best eligible scheme = rs-preduzetnik (preduzetnik keeping double-entry books who pays themselves a personal salary at the lowest contribution base) at €60,000 revenue = RSD 7,044,108 (117.4018 RSD per EUR) with 10% deductible expenses (RSD 704,411), profit RSD 6,339,697. Personal salary RSD 51,297 a month = 615,564 a year, gross, including its own levies and deducted as a business expense. Contributions on the salary only: (24% + 10.3% + 0.75%) = 35.05% x 51,297 = 17,979.60 a month = 215,755.18 a year. Income tax on the salary: 10% x (51,297 - 34,221) = 1,707.60 a month = 20,491.20 a year. Income tax on the rest of the profit: 10% x (6,339,697 - 615,564) = 572,413.30. Annual personal income tax (ZPDG art. 87-89) with the 2025 average annual salary of RSD 1,813,032 (3x = 5,439,096; 6x = 10,878,192; personal deduction 40% = 725,213): counted income = 6,339,697 - 215,755.18 - 20,491.20 - 572,413.30 = 5,531,037.32; income for taxation = 5,531,037.32 - 5,439,096 = 91,941.32; the personal deduction is capped at 50% = 45,970.66; taxable 45,970.66 x 10% = 4,597.07 (nil for a taxpayer under 40). Levies = 215,755.18 + 20,491.20 + 572,413.30 + 4,597.07 = 813,256.75 of RSD 7,044,108 = 11.55%, rounded to 11.5 (808,659.68 = 11.48% for a taxpayer under 40). Of this, contributions are 3.1 points (RSD 215,755) and income tax 8.5 points (RSD 597,502).
Notes
The figure is a steady state for a tax resident below pension age: single, no children, no other income, health insurance paid in Serbia, no accounting fees. Why this scheme wins: the other eligible setups cost more at this size. A frilenser (rs-freelancer, norm-cost model 2: 10% tax, 24% PIO and 10.3% health on income after RSD 66,733 a quarter plus 34% of gross) pays RSD 1,941,305 (27.6%); with model 1 it pays RSD 3,584,625 (50.9%); if the freelancer is insured on another basis and owes no health contribution it pays RSD 1,489,941 (21.2%). The DOO with the owner as founder-director and all profit distributed (rs-doo-owner: contributions on the lowest base, 15% profit tax, 15% dividend tax) pays RSD 1,915,149 (27.2%). The paušal scheme (rs-preduzetnik-pausal) is not eligible at this revenue because the turnover limit is RSD 6,000,000 (about €51,100); it would cost RSD 1,158,504 (16.4%), a fixed amount that does not depend on income (RSD 214,300 paušal income a month for NACE 62.01/62.02, the same in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis). A keeping-books entrepreneur who pays no personal salary owes 35.05% contributions on the whole profit and would pay between about 30.0% and 40.5% of revenue (RSD 2.11 to 2.86 million) depending on how the contribution base is read, so the salary is the standard choice; the minimum salary buys only minimum pension and health rights. What the figure excludes: accounting fees (double-entry books are compulsory), VAT (€60,000 is below the RSD 8,000,000 limit; above it registration is compulsory, and services to foreign business clients are outside Serbian VAT), advance payments, foreign tax credits and treaties, and any registration fees. The annual income tax uses the 2025 salary thresholds because the 2026 average salary is published only in 2027; the real 2026 thresholds will be higher, so the annual tax of RSD 4,597 will most likely be nil. Fees from one client that meet five of the nine criteria of the test of independence are taxed as other income at 20% plus contributions on the gross amount with no norm costs, which would make this setup much dearer.
English proficiencyHigh

EF English Proficiency Index 2025 - Serbia (rank 25/123, score 578, High band)

Research

Data as of
Nov 1, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Serbia ranks 25th of 123 countries and regions with 578 points, inside EF's High band (550 to 599, per EF's 'About EPI' page), with a green marker of +10 points against the previous score on EF's country page; the global average is 488. By skill: reading 587, listening 574, writing 536, speaking 499. Regions: Vojvodina 587, Southern and Eastern Serbia 554, Sumadija and Western Serbia 520 (the page also lists Kosovo, 565, which is outside this profile). Cities: Belgrade 594, Novi Sad 580. By my count from the 24 names shown on EF's overview page, 20 European countries score above Serbia (Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Finland, Poland, Latvia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Czechia); EF's page does not state Serbia's European position in text. Banded 'high', like Bulgaria (594), Greece (592) and Czechia (582) in this dataset, and above Albania (532) and Moldova (531), which are 'moderate'. Second source (self-reported, not English-specific): Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Adult Education Survey 2022 (release no. 293 of 31.10.2023, Eurostat method): 87% of respondents aged 18 to 69 say they speak one foreign language, about 60% two and about 42% three or more, and the release says 'most respondents use English, followed by Russian, German, French and Hungarian'; its chart gives English 52.8%, Russian 18.7%, German 5.7%, French 4.3%, Hungarian 1.2% and other 17.3% without naming the base of the 100%. Eurostat's table edat_aes_l21 (ages 25 to 64, 2022) gives 11.9% with no foreign language, 55.8% with one, 25.3% with two and 6.9% with three or more. The release notes that the languages of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia count as foreign languages, so these shares overstate English. Doubt: EF's index is built from adults who took EF's own test (2.2 million in 2025, per EF's overview page), a self-selected group, and speaking is Serbia's weakest skill (499, at the top of EF's Low band); outside Belgrade, Novi Sad and the service sector English cannot be assumed, and the language of public offices (Serbian) was not re-read at an official source for this value. EF's score decides the band.
Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$509/mo

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS) — Household Budget Survey (Anketa o potrošnji domaćinstava) 2025: average monthly individual consumption of households by COICOP group (database table 01010201), converted to one consumption unit (one adult) with the survey's equivalence scale

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
RZS publishes no spending figure for one-person households, only household averages, so the construct used is the survey's own one-adult unit: the consumption unit. Inputs. (1) Household Budget Survey 2025, all households, average monthly individual consumption 109,787 RSD per household (RZS database table 01010201 'Personal household consumption, monthly average', Serbia total, last updated 2026-04-09, read 2026-11-03; the twelve COICOP groups add exactly to the total; the same figure is in RZS' statistical release of 9 April 2026). The 2025 survey is already in 2025 prices, so no price uplift is applied. (2) Consumption units: the 2024 final bulletin (Household Budget Survey 2024, Bulletin 724, https://publikacije.stat.gov.rs/G2025/pdfE/G20255724.pdf, Table 6.1) gives 2.03 consumption units per household on the OECD scale the survey applies (head of household 1, every other member aged 14 and over 0.7, child under 14 0.5; 2.57 members per household); the 2023 bulletin has the same 2.03. The 2025 bulletin is not out, so 2.03 is applied to 2025. (3) Rent: the survey has no imputed rent (consumption means expenditure plus the value of own-produced food, drink and firewood), so only actual rent is removed. The 2024 bulletin (Table 3.1) shows 993 RSD of 'actual rentals paid by tenants' and 294 RSD of 'other actual rentals' per household a month (1,287 RSD, 1.3% of spending) inside the housing group; lifted to 2025 with the Serbian HICP for actual rentals (Eurostat prc_hicp_aind, CP041, annual averages 167.7 in 2024 and 178.4 in 2025, x1.0638) it is 1,369 RSD. Arithmetic. 109,787 - 1,369 = 108,418 RSD per household; / 2.03 = 53,408 RSD per consumption unit a month. RSD to USD = amount / 117.4018 RSD per EUR (Eurostat ert_bil_eur_m, September 2026 monthly average of the National Bank of Serbia rate) x 1.1179 USD per EUR (ECB euro reference rate of 2026-11-03): 53,408 / 117.4018 = EUR 454.91; x 1.1179 = USD 508.55, shown as $509. The 12 lines (RZS COICOP groups, housing without rent) are summed in cost-breakdown.
Notes
What the figure is. It is not a measured one-person household: it is the average private household of Serbia (permanent residents; collective households are not covered; Kosovo is not covered) divided by the survey's 2.03 consumption units, that is, what one adult would spend if the household's spending followed the OECD scale. It includes the value of own production (food, drink, firewood), so rural households weigh in, and the food share is high (36.6% of 2025 spending). It is a national average, not a budget for a foreign remote worker in Belgrade: in 2024 Belgrade-region households spent 108,400 RSD a month against 98,165 RSD nationally (+10%) with 2.42 members against 2.57 (2024 bulletin, Table 3.1). Precision. 2024: 6,227 households surveyed (70% of the 8,856 planned); the 95% interval for the 2024 household mean is 96,119 to 100,180 RSD (coefficient of variation about 1%), so sampling error is about 2%; we did not find the 2025 sample size. Why consumption units. The alternatives are per member (109,787 - 1,369 = 108,418 RSD / 2.57 members = $402), which understates one adult because it counts children and spreads shared costs over more people, or a one-person household, which RZS does not publish. A check against observed one-adult households: Eurostat's harmonised Household Budget Survey tables hold Serbian data for the reference years 2015 and 2020 by household type (hbs_exp_t134, hbs_str_t211, hbs_str_t224, hbs_car_t313; updated October 2025). One-adult households (28.8% of households in 2020, a group that includes many pensioners) spent 7,749 PPS a year per household in 2020 and 8,127 in 2015 against 14,285 and 14,355 for all households, but Eurostat's version includes imputed rent (252 per mille of one-adult spending and 161 per mille of all-household spending in 2020, which RZS' national tables do not). Without actual and imputed rent, one-adult households spent 48.2% of the all-household figure in 2020 and 51.3% in 2015, against 1/2.03 = 49.3% under the survey's scale; applied to the 108,418 RSD those shares give $497 (2020) and $529 (2015), about 2% below and 4% above the $509 shown. The ratio is SettleMetric arithmetic on Eurostat's tables, and the 2020 round is not a published RZS result (RZS says its own 2020 survey was interrupted by the pandemic). Other checks. The 2024 survey (98,165 RSD, 1,287 rent, 2.03 units, 2024 prices) gives $454; lifted to 2025 with the Serbian all-items HICP (151.1 to 157.3, x1.041; flagged by Eurostat 'definition differs') it is $473, 7% below the measured 2025 survey, because RZS' household spending rose 11.8% in nominal terms in 2025 (109,787 against 98,165), faster than prices. Removing rent by the 2024 share of the housing group (8.03%) instead of the rental index gives $508. Rent. Serbia is a country of owners (83.2% of households own their dwelling and 4.0% rent a private dwelling, 2024 bulletin, Table 7.1), so the 'excluding rent' label removes only about 1.3% of spending; there is no imputed rent to remove, unlike the German and Dutch entries, whose spending figures carry imputed rent that was removed. Comparability. The German entry is the average of real one-person households (including pensioners) and the Serbian one an equivalised average household, so the two are not like for like; the HICP of Serbia is flagged 'definition differs'. The 2025 values were published on 9 April 2026; the database table carries the status 'A' (normal) for all values and we saw no provisional marking.
Domestic delivery qualityGood

RATEL (postal regulator) - Quality of postal services in 2024 and express-service benchmark, with Pošta Srbije, D Express, City Express, AKS Express and BEX Express official pages (composite)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Classified from the regulator's measurements and the carriers' own pages, read on 2026-11-03. RATEL measured the express services of the five operators with more than 1% of the market (AKS Express, BEX Express, City Express, D Express, Post Express of Pošta Srbije) in the last quarter of 2024 and publishes a three-year table (RATEL, 'Quality of postal services in 2024', table 15.14, and the benchmark report of May 2025): average transit time 1.16 days in 2022, 1.26 in 2023 and 1.21 in 2024; items delivered within one day 87.29%, 80.5% and 83.31%; items taking over five days 0.18%, 3.16% and 0.59%; items lost 0.18%, 0.31% and 0.26%; pick-up requests not carried out 15.57%, 35.20% and 24.19%; courier arrival after a pick-up request 3 h 47 min, 4 h 16 min and 4 h 23 min. RATEL itself attributes the weaker 2023 figures to a strike at the national operator in November 2023. Pošta Srbije (national operator): 'close to 1,800 access points and 3,500 delivery districts', more than 1,550 post offices and 6,255 settlements served (its 'Pošta danas' page); its Post Express courier service covers all settlements, takes items at counters in more than 1,100 places, collects at the address in more than 140 settlements for 'Today for tomorrow', offers 'Today for today' in 45 places, and 'Today for now' (as published) in 1,100 places, and 900 parcel machines are available (Pošta news of 25 March 2026, which also reports that Post Express was the best-rated express service in RATEL's 2025 customer survey, with 79.6% of respondents using it). Its parcel-locker site says more than 540 locations for parcels without payment, 154 locations at NIS Petrol and Gazprom stations and 40 outside Lidl stores for parcels with payment, open 24/7, 48 hours to collect (pages published 2025, modified 14 January 2026). D Express: 300 lockers in 80 towns, 24/7, at petrol stations, supermarkets and shopping centres, 2 working days to collect (own pages); 35 parcel shops, 27 delivery depots, about 14 million parcels in 2025, 1,300 staff (Austrian Post release of 21 July 2026); 'Danas za sutra' collects until 17:00 and delivers within 24 h or by 14:00 the next day, 'Dan za dan' same-day delivery between 16:00 and 21:00 inside Belgrade and Novi Sad (own FAQ and service pages); real-time tracking and SMS notices at the parcel shops. City Express: lockers at more than 200 locations (own page). AKS Express: 20 centres with warehouses, 850 staff, lockers with card payment (own pages; locker count loaded dynamically and not read). BEX Express: parcel shops and lockers (counters on its home page are scripts and were not readable), real-time tracking and 'otkupnina (pouzeće)' in its service list. Next-day delivery is the typical result and is sold nationwide, tracking is standard, and three or four locker networks exist side by side; but 17% of items are slower than one day, a quarter of pick-up requests fail in the regulator's test, and the locker counts above are company claims that overlap in unknown ways and were not counted independently, so 'good' rather than 'excellent'.
Notes
Four caveats. (1) The regulator's benchmark samples items from five operators in one quarter; it does not cover all parcels, and 2024 is the latest year published. (2) Locker figures: Pošta 'about 900' (news) against 540 + 154 + 40 on its locker site (the two may not add up the same way), D Express 300, City Express 200+; AKS and BEX counts not read; not added together. (3) Market change: Austrian Post announced on 21 July 2026 that it would buy 100% of D Express and merge it with its subsidiary City Express; City Express's own home page reports the purchase completed on 1 October 2026 (Austrian Post's release says completion was subject to regulatory approval); the two networks are to be merged gradually, so the counts above will change. (4) Access limits: posta.rs answers curl with HTTP 403 on its home page (its news, FAQ, 'Pošta danas' and locker pages were readable), postexpress.rs refused connections, and the Internet Archive refused automated requests (HTTP 429) on 2026-11-03, so Post Express's own service pages were not read; its delivery times come from Pošta's news item and the regulator. Fees, prices and weekend delivery were not assessed.

Watch-outs

Internet speed26 Mbps

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Serbia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2023
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Median of the 343 daily country-median download values (field download_MED) for RS in 2023 (1,450,318 download tests, the sum of dl_samples_day; daily medians ranged 18.4-32.4 Mbps). With an odd number of days the median is the middle (172nd) value, 26.148 Mbps, shown as 26.15. 2023 is the year used across the dataset (same calculation as the German, Dutch and Austrian entries). The file holds one row per histogram bucket per day; the daily fields are identical across a day's rows, so each day was counted once.
Notes
M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised fibre or cable speeds; it is comparable only within this criterion. Monthly medians of the daily values ran from 23.5 Mbps (January) to 28.9 Mbps (September). M-Lab's public file has no values for 22 days of 2023 (29 January to 15 February except 10 February, 24 April, 30 July, 19 November and 30-31 December), so the median covers 343 of 365 days. The same calculation gives 25.2 Mbps for 2022 (353 days, 1,345,809 tests, but daily medians swing from 7.3 to 187.8, a much noisier year); M-Lab's 2024 file for Serbia covers only 86 days (median 29.7 Mbps, 430,506 tests) and there is no 2025 file, so 2023 is the newest full year. We did not check how M-Lab's geolocation treats addresses in Kosovo, so whether the 'RS' aggregate contains any is not confirmed. Context only, a different measure: the regulator RATEL's quarterly market review for Q2 2026 (https://www.ratel.rs/storage/upload/2026/09/Q2-2026-(1).pdf) counts about 2.26 million fixed broadband subscriptions and says the majority of subscribers have contracted access speeds of more than 100 Mbit/s; that is a subscribed speed, not a measured one, so it is not comparable with the M-Lab figure, and the NetTest averages RATEL publishes were not found.

Relocating with a partner and school-age children.

Works in your favour

International schools9

Accreditor registries: IB World Schools directory (Internet Archive captures of ibo.org), COBIS member file, AEFE directory, ZfA map of Deutsche Auslandsschulen

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Registries read on 2026-11-03: the IB World Schools directory - ibo.org answers our requests with a Cloudflare challenge, so IB profiles were read on Internet Archive captures, dated per school - namely the Serbia finder filtered to Diploma Programme schools (capture of 2025-09-01: 6 schools in Serbia, Deseta gimnazija Mihajlo Pupin, Gimnazija "Svetozar Markovic", Gimnazija Crnjanski, Gymnasium Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj, International School of Belgrade, Rudjer Boskovic School) and the all-programme Serbia finder (capture of 2022-12-02: 7 schools, the same six plus "International School"); the COBIS member file (cobis.org.uk/uploaded/cobis-school-search-map-2025.tsv, last modified 2026-10-21; 354 schools, 3 in Serbia, all in Belgrade); the AEFE directory (aefe.gouv.fr/fr/etablissements; the Serbia group holds one school); the ZfA map of German schools abroad (auslandsschulwesen.de, Deutsche Auslandsschulen world map; the Serbia entry is Belgrade). Street addresses were checked against OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) to confirm the municipality. One count per school; a school with several campuses counts once. City of Belgrade (urban municipalities Savski venac, Cukarica, New Belgrade) = 9 schools. (1) International School of Belgrade (Temisvarska 19, Senjak, Savski venac; private): IB World School since 5 April 2005, school code 002266, Diploma, Middle Years and Primary Years Programmes (finder row; authorisation dates on the profile: 5 April 2005, 28 August 2006 and 8 March 2007), English; IB profile capture of 2025-09-13, listed in the 2025-09-01 finder. (2) Rudjer Boskovic School (Kneza Viseslava 17, Cukarica; private): IB code 003055, Diploma authorised 7 April 2006, further programmes authorised 16 and 23 April 2019 (the finder row shows PYP, MYP and DP), English; profile capture of 2025-06-20, listed in the 2025-09-01 finder. (3) Gimnazija Crnjanski (Djordja Ognjanovica 2, Cukarica; private): IB code 002874, Diploma since 1 February 2006, English; profile capture of 2025-06-16, listed in the 2025-09-01 finder. (4) Deseta gimnazija "Mihajlo Pupin" (Antifasisticke borbe 1a, New Belgrade; STATE school): IB code 060821, Diploma authorised 6 February 2020, English and Serbian; profile capture of 2024-03-05, listed in the 2025-09-01 finder. (5) British International School Belgrade (Zupana Vlastimira 8, Palackova 11 and Neznanog junaka 36, Dedinje, 11040, counted once): COBIS file, "Accredited Member (BSO)". (6) Chartwell International School (COBIS map pin 44.78551, 20.45393 = Lackoviceva 6, Topcidersko brdo, Savski venac, per OpenStreetMap): COBIS file, "Member (Compliance)" - a member, not listed as accredited. (7) PRIMA International School (COBIS map pin 44.7911, 20.45786, on Humska street, Savski venac, per OpenStreetMap): COBIS file, "Member (Compliance)". (8) Ecole francaise de Belgrade (Kablarska 31/35, Savski venac): AEFE directory, partner ("conventionne") school, 15 of 15 levels homologated, 506 pupils. (9) Deutsche Schule Belgrad (Petra Cajkovskog 4, Senjak; kindergarten Sanje Zivanovica 15): listed on the ZfA world map of Deutsche Auslandsschulen; address from the school's own site.
Notes
A verified floor, not a tally. State schools with an IB Diploma stream are counted, as in the Berlin and Riga entries: 1 of the 9 (Mihajlo Pupin); leave it out and the figure is 8. Two of the 9 (Chartwell, PRIMA) are COBIS "Member (Compliance)" schools, members but not listed as accredited, as in the Kotor entry. NOT COUNTED: "International School" (Sumatovacka 45, Belgrade; private; IB code 062142, Diploma authorised 16 July 2021): it is in the 2022-12-02 finder and its profile was captured on 2024-12-10, but it is absent from the 2025-09-01 Diploma finder, so its current authorisation could not be confirmed; if it is still an IB school the figure is 10. The CIS membership directory is an interactive Salesforce map with no static list and was not read (a direct call to its data endpoint was declined), so CIS, NEASC and MSA accreditation, which the International School of Belgrade and others claim on their own sites, is not used as evidence for any school; Cambridge International's school finder renders only in a browser, so Cambridge registrations (several private Belgrade schools advertise them) were not enumerated. A PYP-only or MYP-only IB school authorised after December 2022 would be missed: the only later finder capture is filtered to the Diploma Programme. Schools teaching another country's curriculum for its own nationals (the Russian Federation's embassy school, Italian, Greek and others) were not checked against their home-country registers and are not counted. Outside the City of Belgrade nothing was found. The registry reads themselves are current (COBIS file 2026-10-21, AEFE and ZfA pages 2026-11-03) but the IB data are Internet Archive captures of 2024-2025, so a school authorised or withdrawn since is not seen.
Homicide rate1.15/100k

Eurostat — Intentional homicide victims in largest cities by sex (crim_hom_vcit), city Belgrade (RS001C), national police statistics supplied by Serbia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Eurostat table crim_hom_vcit (dataset updated 2026-04-29; latest year 2024; read 2026-11-03), city Belgrade (RS001C), sex total, unit number: victims of intentional homicide (ICCS 0101, completed; attempts are a separate category, 0102) 23, 19, 23, 20 and 12 in 2020–2024 = 97 over five years. Divided by the sum of RZS mid-year population estimates for Grad Belgrade (table 18010403: 1,694,480 + 1,688,667 + 1,684,259 + 1,683,229 + 1,682,720 = 8,433,355): 97 / 8,433,355 × 100,000 = 1.15 per 100,000 per year. A five-year average because yearly counts for one city are small (yearly rates 1.36, 1.13, 1.37, 1.19 and 0.71). For scale, the 2018 and 2019 counts are 35 and 21, and the 2022–2024 rate alone is 1.09.
Notes
VICTIMS OF COMPLETED HOMICIDE as supplied to Eurostat by Serbia; the table does not name the Serbian authority (the police figures are national police statistics) and gives no per-100,000 rate for the later years, so the rate is computed here. The city is the administrative City of Belgrade: Eurostat's own 2014 rate for Belgrade (2.57 per 100,000 on 43 offences) implies a population of about 1.67 million. The table does not say whether a victim is counted by the place of the offence or by residence, so victims who live elsewhere may be in the numerator and not in the denominator. The same source's offence table (crim_hom_ocit) gives 23, 19, 23, 20 and 12 for 2020–2024, and the NUTS-3 table (crim_gen_reg, Beogradska oblast) 23, 20, 23, 21 and 12, so the three Eurostat tables differ by at most one case a year. Populations for 2020–2021 are on the earlier 2011-census base (series break in 2022, about 0.3% for Belgrade). Eurostat has no 2025 figure yet. Serbia's national count in the same Eurostat series is 54 completed intentional homicides in 2024 (about 0.8 per 100,000) against 116 attempted ones; Belgrade's 97 victims in 2020–2024 compare with about 350 completed intentional homicides recorded nationally in the same five years.

Watch-outs

Air quality (PM2.5)19.3 µg/m³

European Environment Agency — Air Quality Statistics (E1a validated), station RS0032A "Belgrade-Stari grad" (Serbian national AQ network, run by the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency)

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Validated (E1a, verification flag 1) 2025 annual mean of the one urban background PM2.5 station in Belgrade's state-network data: RS0032A Belgrade-Stari grad 19.281 µg/m³ at 96.47% coverage (background, urban; 44.8211°N 20.4591°E, 0.4 km from the city-centre point; hourly series from an automatic analyser). Queried from the EEA statistics service on 2026-11-03 (calculated 2026-10-31): Country = Serbia, pollutant PM2.5, ReportingYear 2025, aggregation "Annual mean / 1 calendar year", source flow "E1a/validated data AQ e-Reporting" (11 Serbian PM2.5 stations in all); the EEA City field is empty for Serbian stations, so stations were placed in Belgrade by name and coordinates. Urban and suburban background stations are what the EEA itself averages for its city figures; Belgrade has one, so the value is that station's.
Notes
NETWORK: the state (national) network of the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA, network NET-RS002A "Serbian national AQ network"); every Serbian PM2.5 series in the EEA 2025 set is an hourly series (observation frequency "hour"), none is a daily gravimetric sample. Other Belgrade station in the same set: RS0028A Belgrade-Mostar 21.760 µg/m³ at 98.57% (traffic, urban; 2.2 km from the centre point); the mean of the two is 20.52. A third state-network station inside the administrative city, RS0051A Obrenovac-Centar (traffic, urban, 26.864 µg/m³ at 96.78%), belongs to Obrenovac, a separate town 27 km south-west of the centre, and is left out. 2024, same two stations: Stari grad 21.331 (97.77%), Mostar 21.327 (95.73%). Cross-check: SEPA's annual report "Izveštaj o stanju kvaliteta vazduha 2024" (sepa.gov.rs/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Vazduh2024.pdf, Table 10) gives 21 µg/m³ for both stations, as the EEA's rounded 2024 values; SEPA's 2025 report is not yet published (its 2024 report appeared in January 2026). The same table lists 36 Belgrade measuring points from the state network and local networks (among them the city public health institute and the water utility BVK), with 2024 annual means of 18 to 29 µg/m³ (unweighted mean 22.6, rounded integers as published), the highest at Leštane 29, Lazarevac 28 and Veliki Crljeni, Borča, Obrenovac and Zemun 27; those stations are not in the EEA 2025 set. Above the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³; below Serbia's annual limit value of 25 µg/m³ (SEPA report), though SEPA classes the Belgrade agglomeration as over-polluted in 2024 on PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 exceedances at other stations.
Private healthcare costno verified data

National Bank of Serbia, Insurance Sector in Serbia, Second Quarter Report 2026 (voluntary health insurance market); Serbian insurers' own pages (Uniqa, DDOR, Wiener Staedtische, Triglav, Generali, Dunav); PIO Fund and Tax Administration for the public-system contribution

Official source

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Honest gap on the criterion's figure, with the nearest sourced anchors below. WHY NO NUMBER. The criterion asks for the median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private cover (outpatient plus inpatient, about $100k, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old. Serbian insurers publish almost no tariffs for such cover. DDOR (packages Bronzani 1 and 2, Srebrni, Zlatni; modules from EUR 1,000 to EUR 100,000), Wiener Staedtische (tiers of EUR 1,000-3,000, EUR 10,000-50,000 and EUR 100,000), Triglav (outpatient EUR 1,000-5,000; outpatient plus inpatient EUR 5,000-100,000), Generali (Total Medic) and Dunav publish product descriptions without prices; Dunav says the premium 'depends on the sum insured, duration, breadth of cover, entry age and other bases'. DDOR's calculator is a form asking for name, telephone and e-mail, Triglav's calculator posts to a server behind a reCAPTCHA, and Wiener asks the visitor to 'request an offer'; none of these was used (personal data or bot checks). Only Uniqa Serbia embeds a tariff table in a public page (dzo.uniqa.rs, calculator by age group, read 2026-11-03). For ages 31-35 it shows EUR 22.56 a month for Vital Start 1,000 (outpatient, EUR 1,000 annual budget), EUR 28.81 for Vital Start 2,000 and EUR 83.43 for Vital Elegant 10,000 (outpatient plus hospital treatment, maternity and delivery, EUR 10,000 annual budget) = EUR 1,001.16 a year = $1,119 for the top package. The page says the prices are informative, apply to people without previously diagnosed chronic conditions, may change after the health questionnaire and are contracted in dinars at the middle rate of the day; its footer carries a 2019 copyright line, so the date of the tariff is unclear, but the EUR 22.56 equals the outpatient component of a Uniqa 'informative offer' dated 30.01.2025 (EUR 30.65 a month = 22.56 + 8.09 for the yearly check-up), so the tariff looks unchanged since January 2025. That is one insurer and an annual limit of EUR 10,000, not the criterion's cover of about $100k, so it cannot stand next to the German $7,335 for unlimited cover; the same reasoning kept Croatia's cheap supplementary product out of its comprehensive figure. MARKET RANGE FROM A BROKER (not an insurer, not an official body). Respect Serbia's page lists monthly premium ranges across insurers for ages 30-39: EUR 13-18 (EUR 1,000 outpatient), EUR 28-38 (EUR 3,000 outpatient) and EUR 58-68 (EUR 50,000 outpatient plus hospital, maternity, check-up, physiotherapy) = EUR 696-816 a year = $778-$912 for the EUR 50,000 package. This is indicative of the market, not a quote, and shows that cover above EUR 50,000 is not priced publicly. Generali's policy for foreigners, which Generali says is needed to regulate a stay in Serbia, has a sum insured of EUR 5,000 and covers only sudden illness and accidents; it is not comprehensive. MARKET CONTEXT. The NBS says voluntary health insurance was 12.8% of all insurance premium in the second quarter of 2026 (RSD 104.3 bn in total), up 11.5% on the same quarter of 2025, with three insurers holding 61.8% of the segment; the statistics give no premium per insured person. WHAT A RESIDENT PAYS INSIDE THE PUBLIC SYSTEM (not this value; already counted elsewhere). Public health insurance with the National Health Insurance Fund is compulsory for employees and for entrepreneurs, who pay the contribution themselves (Welcome to Serbia portal). The health contribution rate is 10.30% (Tax Administration bulletin for the self-employed, English; 5.15% each for employee and employer when wages are paid). Contributions cannot be calculated on a base below the minimum monthly base, which is RSD 51,297 for 2026 (35% of the average wage; the maximum is RSD 732,820; PIO Fund notice of 9 January 2026). A self-employed person who takes no salary therefore pays at least RSD 5,283.59 a month for health = RSD 63,403 a year = EUR 540 = $604, and at most RSD 75,480.46 a month = RSD 905,766 a year = EUR 7,715 = $8,625 at the maximum base. A self-employed person who is also employed by another employer, or retired, is not liable for health contributions when paying personal wages. This health contribution is already one component of the freelancer tax burden in the tax schemes, so it must not be added to a private premium. Private cover in Serbia is a supplement chosen for faster access to private clinics, not a substitute for the compulsory contribution. FOR FOREIGN NATIONALS. DDOR says foreign nationals with temporary residence may take out its voluntary insurance; Wiener says the insured must be a natural person with a registered address in Serbia; Generali says a Serbian-issued voluntary policy is needed for a temporary-residence application (Generali's statement; the Law on Foreigners was not checked). Conversions: RSD 117.4018 per EUR (Eurostat, September 2026 average of the NBS rate) and USD 1.1179 per EUR (ECB, 2026-11-03). NOT READ. Dunav's, Sogaz's, Grawe's and international (IPMI) insurers' prices; Wiener's, DDOR's and Triglav's tariffs behind their quote forms; any insurer price for cover near $100k. If a number is wanted later, the only defensible candidates are the Uniqa figure above (one insurer, EUR 10,000 limit) or the public-system minimum contribution ($604, a different thing).

Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.

Works in your favour

Crypto regulationLegal regulated

Law on Digital Assets (Zakon o digitalnoj imovini, RS Official Gazette 153/2020, applied from 29 June 2021) with the National Bank of Serbia digital-assets page and register of virtual-currency service providers; Securities Commission registers; Law on Personal Income Tax Articles 72, 72a, 73, 77, 79a and 95

Official source

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Notes
Holding, buying, selling and cashing out cryptocurrency are legal for private persons in Serbia, under a dedicated licensing regime. REGULATION. The Law on Digital Assets (Zakon o digitalnoj imovini, RS Official Gazette No 153/2020) entered into force on 29 December 2020 and has applied since 29 June 2021 (Article 146; read in the Ministry of Finance's English translation, https://www.mfin.gov.rs//upload/media/A21I5r_62d6601427e70.pdf). The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) still cites this single gazette number on its digital-assets page on 2026-11-03 and names no amending act. Supervision is split (Article 10): the NBS is competent for virtual currencies (assets 'not issued or guaranteed by a central bank or public authority', for example bitcoin), the Securities Commission for digital tokens and for digital assets that are financial instruments, and a hybrid asset is divided by its features. A company providing digital-asset services (the nine services of Article 3: order execution, buying and selling for money, swaps between assets, custody, issuing and placing, pledge registers, acceptance and transfer of payments, portfolio management, trading platforms) needs a licence from the supervisory authority (Article 4), must have the legal form of a company (Article 52) and must hold minimum capital of EUR 20,000, 50,000 or 125,000 depending on the service (Article 54). The NBS register of virtual-currency service providers lists three licensed firms on 2026-11-03 (VESCON DOO, MCM 965 D.O.O., AX CRYPTO DOO; register numbers 500, 505, 510). The Securities Commission's register of digital-token service providers lists the same three (licences of 17.03.2023 for two and 29.05.2025 for the third) and its register of approved white papers lists 16 decisions from 26.05.2022 to 12.10.2026 (14 white papers and 2 supplements, token offerings by Serbian companies). The NBS states that providing virtual-currency services without its licence 'is prohibited under the Law on Digital Assets and considered a criminal offence under the Criminal Code'; Article 131(4)-(5) lets the supervisor ban the activity and fine a natural person who provides services without a licence RSD 30,000 to 2,000,000. WHAT THE LAW LEAVES TO INDIVIDUALS. Nothing in the law restricts who may acquire or hold digital assets: OTC trading is allowed and the parties 'are not required to use the services of any digital asset service provider' (Article 36); mining is allowed and miners may sell through a provider or OTC (Article 6); secondary trading in assets issued abroad is allowed (Article 31). LIMITS THAT TOUCH INDIVIDUALS OR THEIR BANKING. (1) In retail trade a seller may accept digital assets for goods or services only through a licensed acceptance-and-transfer provider that converts them into money; acceptance or transfer 'directly from a consumer to a trader is not allowed' (Article 97). (2) Banks, insurers, payment institutions and e-money institutions supervised by the NBS may not own digital assets or be providers or users of digital-asset services, except that banks may keep cryptographic keys (Article 13); this binds the institutions, not their customers. (3) Virtual currency cannot be contributed to a company as capital in kind and must be converted into money first (Article 14(1)). (4) Legal persons and entrepreneurs (not natural persons) that acquire virtual currency without using a licensed provider must report the holding to the NBS's Records of Virtual Currency Holders (Article 85(3); NBS notice). (5) Dinar and foreign-currency payments linked to digital-asset deals follow the payment-services and foreign-exchange rules (Article 12). (6) Licensed providers are anti-money-laundering obliged entities; simplified identification applies only below RSD 15,000 per transaction and RSD 40,000 a month or RSD 120,000 a year (AML/CFT Law Article 16a, English consolidation to Official Gazette 19/2025, hosted by the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering). TAX CONTEXT, not a criterion input. Law on Personal Income Tax, official English translation on purs.gov.rs (consolidated to Official Gazette 19/2025, in effect 14.03.2025): the transfer of digital assets is a capital gain (Article 72(1)(6)) taxed at 15% (Article 77) on the difference between the selling price and the documented acquisition cost (Article 74); an exchange of one right for another is priced at the market price of the right given (Article 73(3)), so a swap of one crypto-asset for another is a taxable transfer; mined assets that were taxed as other income under Article 85(1)(16) take that tax base as their acquisition cost (Article 74); gains on assets owned continuously for at least ten years are not capital gains (Article 72a(1)(5)); a capital loss can be offset against gains for five years (Article 78); if the sale proceeds are invested within 90 days in the share capital of a Serbian company or a Serbian-based investment fund, 50% of the tax is exempt, or 50% is refunded if invested within 12 months (Article 79a); the return is due within 120 days after the end of the quarter of the transfer (Article 95(2); the Tax Administration's news item also names form PPDG-3R). The Serbian consolidated text valid from 01.01.2026 is listed to Official Gazette 109/25, which amended Articles 15, 21, 89, 95 and 98 (Articles 72, 72a and 79a are not among them), and the Tax Administration's law page lists a later act, Official Gazette 80/26, which was not read, so the Article 95 deadline and any 2026 change are unconfirmed. CLASSIFICATION. Banded 'legal-regulated': holding, trading, mining, OTC dealing and cashing out are lawful and a working licence regime exists, but the only tax relief for private holders is a ten-year holding exemption (not the favourable one-year or time-test logic that put Germany, Portugal and Czechia in 'legal-friendly'), crypto-to-crypto swaps are taxable, and retail payment in crypto must pass through a licensed intermediary. Not 'restricted' (as Moldova, where no authorisation framework exists and paying in crypto is not permitted): a licensed route for payments exists and nothing in the law bars individuals from holding, trading or cashing out. Same band as Albania, Montenegro and Croatia in this dataset. NOT READ OR DOUBTFUL. The NBS and Securities Commission secondary legislation under the law; any NBS statement on residents using foreign exchanges that hold no Serbian licence (the prohibitions in the law target providers, and the NBS warns the public about unlicensed providers); whether Serbian banks in practice refuse crypto-related transfers; Official Gazette 80/26. The Serbian original on nbs.rs has an unreadable text layer, so the English translation was used. A stricter reading of Articles 13 and 97 would give 'restricted'.
Financial control levelModerate

Composite - Law on Foreign Exchange Operations (Zakon o deviznom poslovanju, RS Official Gazette 62/2006 ... 30/2018, 19/2025) with the NBS Decision on terms under which residents may hold foreign exchange in bank accounts abroad, the NBS decisions on foreign payments and on personal and physical transfers, Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering Article 46, and Customs Administration cash-declaration rules

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Nov 3, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Composite, each input read at its source on 2026-11-03. Serbia is outside the EU and keeps a foreign-exchange law. (1) Convertibility and regime. Payments and transfers for current transactions between residents and non-residents 'shall be executed freely' (Law on Foreign Exchange Operations, Article 3) and capital transactions 'freely, unless stipulated otherwise' (Article 10; English consolidation to 30/2018 hosted by the Ministry of Finance, https://www.mfin.gov.rs//upload/media/KamiGh_62d6602ea0f3f.pdf). The NBS says it pursues 'a managed floating exchange rate regime' (NBS monetary-policy page). Residency (Article 2): a foreign citizen is a non-resident in the first year of stay and a resident after more than a year on a residence permit or work visa (also in the NBS guide for returnees and on the Welcome to Serbia portal). (2) Accounts abroad. Article 27 lets residents keep foreign exchange on accounts abroad only 'under the terms and conditions prescribed by the National Bank of Serbia'. The NBS Decision (Official Gazette 31/2012 ... 67/2023 and 13/2025, English text on nbs.rs) names who may do so without approval, among them foreign nationals who have resided in Serbia on a residence permit or work visa for over one year (point 2(6)), dual nationals domiciled in Serbia and Serbian nationals allowed to stay abroad up to one year (point 2(8)), emigrants and persons on professional training abroad, and lists cases that need an NBS decision (for example buying securities where the foreign market requires a local account, medical treatment abroad, construction works; point 3). When the ground ends the funds must be brought back and the account closed within 30 days. A resident who is only a Serbian national therefore cannot freely keep an account abroad; a foreigner who has passed the first year can. (3) Payments and transfers abroad. International payments go through a bank, payment institution, e-money issuer or the post, and a resident gives the bank the document that proves the payment obligation, unless bank and client agree in writing otherwise (the client then keeps the document for ten years) (NBS Decision on foreign payment transactions, 24/2007 ... 111/2015 and 13/2025). A resident natural person may transfer abroad through a bank up to EUR 10,000 a month as gifts, help to family or inheritance, more against documents (NBS Decision on personal and physical transfers, 67/2006, 52/2008, 18/2009, still listed by the NBS). A non-resident may receive any amount from abroad and send funds abroad, but from a non-resident account only after proving that tax obligations to Serbia are settled (Article 29; Welcome to Serbia portal); transfers from a non-resident savings account carry no such condition. (4) Investments abroad. Residents may buy equity securities abroad and real estate abroad freely, long-term debt of EU and OECD issuers, and other debt according to an NBS rating rule; foreign investment funds only through resident fund managers; short-term securities of EU issuers (Articles 11-17; NBS guide for returnees). (5) Domestic currency. Payments and transfers between residents, and in Serbia, must be made in dinars, with listed exceptions; contracts may be written in foreign currency but are paid in dinars (Article 34). (6) Cash between persons. Since Official Gazette 94/2024 a person selling goods, real estate or services may not accept cash of EUR 10,000 or more in dinar equivalent (single or linked payments, or contracts within one year); the sum 'must be paid using a bank account', and a natural person receiving cash on a loan or a real-estate sale contract is bound by the same limit (AML/CFT Law Article 46, English consolidation to 19/2025 on apml.gov.rs); obliged entities report cash transactions of EUR 15,000 or more (Article 47). I found no cash cap between private persons and no other cap on cash between businesses. (7) Cash across the border. Every natural person must declare physically portable means of payment of EUR 10,000 or more on entering or leaving. Foreigners arriving may bring unlimited foreign cash, get a customs certificate for the declared sum and take out up to EUR 10,000 (more only against that certificate or a bank withdrawal confirmation); foreigners living and working in Serbia for over a year may take out up to EUR 10,000; resident Serbian nationals may take out foreign currency of EUR 10,000 or more 'only on the basis of proof of emigration'; dinars only up to the EUR 10,000 equivalent per person (carina.rs pages updated 13-18 March 2026). (8) Banking access for foreigners. A non-resident natural person can open dinar and foreign-currency accounts with a passport and a document showing the place of residence during the last year; the bank applies AML due diligence and 'freely decides on the choice of clients' (Law on Banks Article 41(3)), but may not refuse on discriminatory grounds such as citizenship (Welcome to Serbia portal). Classified 'moderate': current-account convertibility, free capital transactions by default, no limit on what non-residents receive or send, no cash cap between private persons, and a foreigner can keep a foreign account once resident; but the state keeps controls that EU members do not have: document-backed foreign payments, an EUR 10,000 monthly personal-transfer limit, accounts abroad only for listed residents, dinar-only settlement at home, an EUR 10,000 cash limit for sellers and a cash-export limit for Serbian residents. Albania and Moldova are also 'moderate'. A stricter reading ('high') is defensible for a Serbian-national resident, who may not hold an account abroad.
Notes
WHAT WAS NOT READ OR IS DOUBTFUL. (a) The law was amended by Official Gazette 19/2025 (in force 14 March 2025; the NBS Serbian consolidated text cites it). Media and legal publishers describe the amendment as being about authorised exchange offices (register kept by the NBS, suspensions, fines); its text was not read because the Serbian consolidation on nbs.rs has an unreadable text layer, so the Ministry of Finance's English consolidation (to 30/2018) was used for the articles quoted; article numbers 26-29 match in the Serbian text. (b) The IMF's exchange-system classification and Article VIII status are not cited: imf.org answered HTTP 403 and elibrary.imf.org returned an empty body, so no IMF page was read. (c) Not checked: Serbian tax reporting of foreign accounts and CRS exchange, the NBS decision on opening foreign-exchange accounts in detail, the 2011 NBS rule on documents for large cash withdrawals, and banks' practice when foreign inflows exceed the AML thresholds. (d) The Welcome to Serbia portal says foreigners who become residents may keep accounts 'in the country of which they are citizens'; the NBS decision text names no such limit for foreign nationals, but the NBS's own FAQ reads the dual-national and Serbian-abroad cases as limited to the country that issued the passport or residence document, so a similar reading may be applied to foreigners. (e) Payment cards: the guide for returnees says payments abroad by card need a supporting document such as an invoice or a hotel booking page, which banks in practice handle automatically; this was not tested. (f) The NBS FAQ on foreign-exchange rules, the NBS returnee guide (October 2019) and the Welcome to Serbia pages are explanatory; the legal text is in the law and the decisions named above.
Freelancer tax burden11.5%

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (ZPDG arts. 15a, 33a, 37a, 38, 87-89; ZDOSO arts. 22, 36-44, 52a; lowest contribution base RSD 51,297 per Sl. glasnik RS 112/25; Tax Administration guides of April 2026)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jan 1, 2026
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Best eligible scheme = rs-preduzetnik (preduzetnik keeping double-entry books who pays themselves a personal salary at the lowest contribution base) at €60,000 revenue = RSD 7,044,108 (117.4018 RSD per EUR) with 10% deductible expenses (RSD 704,411), profit RSD 6,339,697. Personal salary RSD 51,297 a month = 615,564 a year, gross, including its own levies and deducted as a business expense. Contributions on the salary only: (24% + 10.3% + 0.75%) = 35.05% x 51,297 = 17,979.60 a month = 215,755.18 a year. Income tax on the salary: 10% x (51,297 - 34,221) = 1,707.60 a month = 20,491.20 a year. Income tax on the rest of the profit: 10% x (6,339,697 - 615,564) = 572,413.30. Annual personal income tax (ZPDG art. 87-89) with the 2025 average annual salary of RSD 1,813,032 (3x = 5,439,096; 6x = 10,878,192; personal deduction 40% = 725,213): counted income = 6,339,697 - 215,755.18 - 20,491.20 - 572,413.30 = 5,531,037.32; income for taxation = 5,531,037.32 - 5,439,096 = 91,941.32; the personal deduction is capped at 50% = 45,970.66; taxable 45,970.66 x 10% = 4,597.07 (nil for a taxpayer under 40). Levies = 215,755.18 + 20,491.20 + 572,413.30 + 4,597.07 = 813,256.75 of RSD 7,044,108 = 11.55%, rounded to 11.5 (808,659.68 = 11.48% for a taxpayer under 40). Of this, contributions are 3.1 points (RSD 215,755) and income tax 8.5 points (RSD 597,502).
Notes
The figure is a steady state for a tax resident below pension age: single, no children, no other income, health insurance paid in Serbia, no accounting fees. Why this scheme wins: the other eligible setups cost more at this size. A frilenser (rs-freelancer, norm-cost model 2: 10% tax, 24% PIO and 10.3% health on income after RSD 66,733 a quarter plus 34% of gross) pays RSD 1,941,305 (27.6%); with model 1 it pays RSD 3,584,625 (50.9%); if the freelancer is insured on another basis and owes no health contribution it pays RSD 1,489,941 (21.2%). The DOO with the owner as founder-director and all profit distributed (rs-doo-owner: contributions on the lowest base, 15% profit tax, 15% dividend tax) pays RSD 1,915,149 (27.2%). The paušal scheme (rs-preduzetnik-pausal) is not eligible at this revenue because the turnover limit is RSD 6,000,000 (about €51,100); it would cost RSD 1,158,504 (16.4%), a fixed amount that does not depend on income (RSD 214,300 paušal income a month for NACE 62.01/62.02, the same in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis). A keeping-books entrepreneur who pays no personal salary owes 35.05% contributions on the whole profit and would pay between about 30.0% and 40.5% of revenue (RSD 2.11 to 2.86 million) depending on how the contribution base is read, so the salary is the standard choice; the minimum salary buys only minimum pension and health rights. What the figure excludes: accounting fees (double-entry books are compulsory), VAT (€60,000 is below the RSD 8,000,000 limit; above it registration is compulsory, and services to foreign business clients are outside Serbian VAT), advance payments, foreign tax credits and treaties, and any registration fees. The annual income tax uses the 2025 salary thresholds because the 2026 average salary is published only in 2027; the real 2026 thresholds will be higher, so the annual tax of RSD 4,597 will most likely be nil. Fees from one client that meet five of the nine criteria of the test of independence are taxed as other income at 20% plus contributions on the gross amount with no norm costs, which would make this setup much dearer.

Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.

Works in your favour

Homicide rate1.15/100k

Eurostat — Intentional homicide victims in largest cities by sex (crim_hom_vcit), city Belgrade (RS001C), national police statistics supplied by Serbia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Eurostat table crim_hom_vcit (dataset updated 2026-04-29; latest year 2024; read 2026-11-03), city Belgrade (RS001C), sex total, unit number: victims of intentional homicide (ICCS 0101, completed; attempts are a separate category, 0102) 23, 19, 23, 20 and 12 in 2020–2024 = 97 over five years. Divided by the sum of RZS mid-year population estimates for Grad Belgrade (table 18010403: 1,694,480 + 1,688,667 + 1,684,259 + 1,683,229 + 1,682,720 = 8,433,355): 97 / 8,433,355 × 100,000 = 1.15 per 100,000 per year. A five-year average because yearly counts for one city are small (yearly rates 1.36, 1.13, 1.37, 1.19 and 0.71). For scale, the 2018 and 2019 counts are 35 and 21, and the 2022–2024 rate alone is 1.09.
Notes
VICTIMS OF COMPLETED HOMICIDE as supplied to Eurostat by Serbia; the table does not name the Serbian authority (the police figures are national police statistics) and gives no per-100,000 rate for the later years, so the rate is computed here. The city is the administrative City of Belgrade: Eurostat's own 2014 rate for Belgrade (2.57 per 100,000 on 43 offences) implies a population of about 1.67 million. The table does not say whether a victim is counted by the place of the offence or by residence, so victims who live elsewhere may be in the numerator and not in the denominator. The same source's offence table (crim_hom_ocit) gives 23, 19, 23, 20 and 12 for 2020–2024, and the NUTS-3 table (crim_gen_reg, Beogradska oblast) 23, 20, 23, 21 and 12, so the three Eurostat tables differ by at most one case a year. Populations for 2020–2021 are on the earlier 2011-census base (series break in 2022, about 0.3% for Belgrade). Eurostat has no 2025 figure yet. Serbia's national count in the same Eurostat series is 54 completed intentional homicides in 2024 (about 0.8 per 100,000) against 116 attempted ones; Belgrade's 97 victims in 2020–2024 compare with about 350 completed intentional homicides recorded nationally in the same five years.
Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$509/mo

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS) — Household Budget Survey (Anketa o potrošnji domaćinstava) 2025: average monthly individual consumption of households by COICOP group (database table 01010201), converted to one consumption unit (one adult) with the survey's equivalence scale

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
RZS publishes no spending figure for one-person households, only household averages, so the construct used is the survey's own one-adult unit: the consumption unit. Inputs. (1) Household Budget Survey 2025, all households, average monthly individual consumption 109,787 RSD per household (RZS database table 01010201 'Personal household consumption, monthly average', Serbia total, last updated 2026-04-09, read 2026-11-03; the twelve COICOP groups add exactly to the total; the same figure is in RZS' statistical release of 9 April 2026). The 2025 survey is already in 2025 prices, so no price uplift is applied. (2) Consumption units: the 2024 final bulletin (Household Budget Survey 2024, Bulletin 724, https://publikacije.stat.gov.rs/G2025/pdfE/G20255724.pdf, Table 6.1) gives 2.03 consumption units per household on the OECD scale the survey applies (head of household 1, every other member aged 14 and over 0.7, child under 14 0.5; 2.57 members per household); the 2023 bulletin has the same 2.03. The 2025 bulletin is not out, so 2.03 is applied to 2025. (3) Rent: the survey has no imputed rent (consumption means expenditure plus the value of own-produced food, drink and firewood), so only actual rent is removed. The 2024 bulletin (Table 3.1) shows 993 RSD of 'actual rentals paid by tenants' and 294 RSD of 'other actual rentals' per household a month (1,287 RSD, 1.3% of spending) inside the housing group; lifted to 2025 with the Serbian HICP for actual rentals (Eurostat prc_hicp_aind, CP041, annual averages 167.7 in 2024 and 178.4 in 2025, x1.0638) it is 1,369 RSD. Arithmetic. 109,787 - 1,369 = 108,418 RSD per household; / 2.03 = 53,408 RSD per consumption unit a month. RSD to USD = amount / 117.4018 RSD per EUR (Eurostat ert_bil_eur_m, September 2026 monthly average of the National Bank of Serbia rate) x 1.1179 USD per EUR (ECB euro reference rate of 2026-11-03): 53,408 / 117.4018 = EUR 454.91; x 1.1179 = USD 508.55, shown as $509. The 12 lines (RZS COICOP groups, housing without rent) are summed in cost-breakdown.
Notes
What the figure is. It is not a measured one-person household: it is the average private household of Serbia (permanent residents; collective households are not covered; Kosovo is not covered) divided by the survey's 2.03 consumption units, that is, what one adult would spend if the household's spending followed the OECD scale. It includes the value of own production (food, drink, firewood), so rural households weigh in, and the food share is high (36.6% of 2025 spending). It is a national average, not a budget for a foreign remote worker in Belgrade: in 2024 Belgrade-region households spent 108,400 RSD a month against 98,165 RSD nationally (+10%) with 2.42 members against 2.57 (2024 bulletin, Table 3.1). Precision. 2024: 6,227 households surveyed (70% of the 8,856 planned); the 95% interval for the 2024 household mean is 96,119 to 100,180 RSD (coefficient of variation about 1%), so sampling error is about 2%; we did not find the 2025 sample size. Why consumption units. The alternatives are per member (109,787 - 1,369 = 108,418 RSD / 2.57 members = $402), which understates one adult because it counts children and spreads shared costs over more people, or a one-person household, which RZS does not publish. A check against observed one-adult households: Eurostat's harmonised Household Budget Survey tables hold Serbian data for the reference years 2015 and 2020 by household type (hbs_exp_t134, hbs_str_t211, hbs_str_t224, hbs_car_t313; updated October 2025). One-adult households (28.8% of households in 2020, a group that includes many pensioners) spent 7,749 PPS a year per household in 2020 and 8,127 in 2015 against 14,285 and 14,355 for all households, but Eurostat's version includes imputed rent (252 per mille of one-adult spending and 161 per mille of all-household spending in 2020, which RZS' national tables do not). Without actual and imputed rent, one-adult households spent 48.2% of the all-household figure in 2020 and 51.3% in 2015, against 1/2.03 = 49.3% under the survey's scale; applied to the 108,418 RSD those shares give $497 (2020) and $529 (2015), about 2% below and 4% above the $509 shown. The ratio is SettleMetric arithmetic on Eurostat's tables, and the 2020 round is not a published RZS result (RZS says its own 2020 survey was interrupted by the pandemic). Other checks. The 2024 survey (98,165 RSD, 1,287 rent, 2.03 units, 2024 prices) gives $454; lifted to 2025 with the Serbian all-items HICP (151.1 to 157.3, x1.041; flagged by Eurostat 'definition differs') it is $473, 7% below the measured 2025 survey, because RZS' household spending rose 11.8% in nominal terms in 2025 (109,787 against 98,165), faster than prices. Removing rent by the 2024 share of the housing group (8.03%) instead of the rental index gives $508. Rent. Serbia is a country of owners (83.2% of households own their dwelling and 4.0% rent a private dwelling, 2024 bulletin, Table 7.1), so the 'excluding rent' label removes only about 1.3% of spending; there is no imputed rent to remove, unlike the German and Dutch entries, whose spending figures carry imputed rent that was removed. Comparability. The German entry is the average of real one-person households (including pensioners) and the Serbian one an equivalised average household, so the two are not like for like; the HICP of Serbia is flagged 'definition differs'. The 2025 values were published on 9 April 2026; the database table carries the status 'A' (normal) for all values and we saw no provisional marking.

Watch-outs

Air quality (PM2.5)19.3 µg/m³

European Environment Agency — Air Quality Statistics (E1a validated), station RS0032A "Belgrade-Stari grad" (Serbian national AQ network, run by the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency)

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Validated (E1a, verification flag 1) 2025 annual mean of the one urban background PM2.5 station in Belgrade's state-network data: RS0032A Belgrade-Stari grad 19.281 µg/m³ at 96.47% coverage (background, urban; 44.8211°N 20.4591°E, 0.4 km from the city-centre point; hourly series from an automatic analyser). Queried from the EEA statistics service on 2026-11-03 (calculated 2026-10-31): Country = Serbia, pollutant PM2.5, ReportingYear 2025, aggregation "Annual mean / 1 calendar year", source flow "E1a/validated data AQ e-Reporting" (11 Serbian PM2.5 stations in all); the EEA City field is empty for Serbian stations, so stations were placed in Belgrade by name and coordinates. Urban and suburban background stations are what the EEA itself averages for its city figures; Belgrade has one, so the value is that station's.
Notes
NETWORK: the state (national) network of the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA, network NET-RS002A "Serbian national AQ network"); every Serbian PM2.5 series in the EEA 2025 set is an hourly series (observation frequency "hour"), none is a daily gravimetric sample. Other Belgrade station in the same set: RS0028A Belgrade-Mostar 21.760 µg/m³ at 98.57% (traffic, urban; 2.2 km from the centre point); the mean of the two is 20.52. A third state-network station inside the administrative city, RS0051A Obrenovac-Centar (traffic, urban, 26.864 µg/m³ at 96.78%), belongs to Obrenovac, a separate town 27 km south-west of the centre, and is left out. 2024, same two stations: Stari grad 21.331 (97.77%), Mostar 21.327 (95.73%). Cross-check: SEPA's annual report "Izveštaj o stanju kvaliteta vazduha 2024" (sepa.gov.rs/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Vazduh2024.pdf, Table 10) gives 21 µg/m³ for both stations, as the EEA's rounded 2024 values; SEPA's 2025 report is not yet published (its 2024 report appeared in January 2026). The same table lists 36 Belgrade measuring points from the state network and local networks (among them the city public health institute and the water utility BVK), with 2024 annual means of 18 to 29 µg/m³ (unweighted mean 22.6, rounded integers as published), the highest at Leštane 29, Lazarevac 28 and Veliki Crljeni, Borča, Obrenovac and Zemun 27; those stations are not in the EEA 2025 set. Above the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³; below Serbia's annual limit value of 25 µg/m³ (SEPA report), though SEPA classes the Belgrade agglomeration as over-polluted in 2024 on PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 exceedances at other stations.
Climate comfort5/12 mo

SettleMetric computation over Beograd climate-normals (WMO 13274)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2020
Verified
Nov 3, 2026
Method
Count of months with mean daily max 15–28 °C and precipitation < 150 mm, from the 1991–2020 normals: Apr (18.8 °C), May (23.6), Jun (27.1), Sep (24.3) and Oct (18.7) qualify = 5. Mar (13.1 °C) and Nov (12.2) miss the 15 °C threshold; Jul (29.3 °C) and Aug (29.7) are above 28 °C; no month reaches 150 mm (wettest: Jun 95.6 mm).

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