BelgradevsBucharest.

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (Codul fiscal art. 68; Legea 141/2025) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Best clean eligible scheme ro-pfa-real (PFA real system) at €60,000 revenue = 313,926 RON (ECB 5.2321), 10% expenses → net income 282,533.40. CASS 10% = 28,253.34; CAS band (>97,200) = 24,300; income-tax base 229,980.06 → 10% = 22,998.01. Total levies 75,551.35 → 24.07% ≈ 24.1%. The company route ro-micro-srl models a lower ~18% burden but omits the mandatory ≥1-employee salary cost, so it is not a like-for-like comparison and is not used as the headline.

Belgrade

Law on Foreigners (Zakon o strancima), consolidated text 24/2018, 31/2019, 62/2023 — Art. 40(4) and Arts. 46a-46e, Pravno-informacioni sistem (official legal database) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Nov 3, 2026

Verified

Nov 3, 2026

Notes

Serbia has no operable digital-nomad or remote-work permit. Art. 40(4) of the Law on Foreigners (in force since 4 August 2023) lists 'foreign digital nomads' among categories the Government may define by an act, and the Welcome to Serbia portal names 'Digital nomad' as a closer reason on one page and as a purpose of stay in its Entry Guide. But the Government decree that Art. 51(1) of the 2023 amending law ordered within six months was not found: the Ministry of the Interior's regulations list (Internet Archive capture of 2026-03-10) and the official legal database still show only the 2020/2022 decree with four categories (start-up founders, investors, 'talent' degree holders, Serbian origin). No income threshold, document list or duration for digital nomads exists in any official text read, and the portal's own 'Digital nomads in Serbia' page is promotional and names no permit. The nearest general route is the single permit for self-employment, open to every nationality: the foreigner is a registered entrepreneur or the sole or controlling member of a company registered in Serbia; the National Employment Service assesses the foreigner's qualifications for the activity (Employment of Foreigners Law Art. 23, Rulebook 6/2024 Art. 11); the application is electronic only; no minimum capital, income or funds figure is set for the single permit; the permit is valid up to 3 years and renewable; fees are RSD 430 + 22,770 + 2,190 (EUR 3.7 + 194.0 + 18.7); the statutory decision deadline is 15 days; permanent residence can be requested after 3 years of continuous temporary residence. Other ways in need a Serbian counterpart or a special status: a single permit for employment (Serbian employer and a labour-market test), the independent-professional permit (Serbian client and 3 years of experience), temporary residence by owning residential property (right to work without a single permit, no minimum property value), and the Government-decree categories of start-up founder, investor (EUR 50,000 in a Serbian bank account), 'talent' (professionally recognised foreign degree) and Serbian origin. Citizens of the EU, US, UK, Ukraine and Venezuela may stay visa-free 90 days in 180, Russians 30 days; no official text addresses remote work for a foreign employer during such a stay, and the portal's tax page says a non-resident paid from abroad for work done in Serbia must self-assess income tax and contributions. EU citizens get no facilitation (their free-labour-market articles apply only from Serbia's EU accession). Ukrainians under temporary protection (no fixed end date since the March 2024 amendment of Serbia's own decision) work without a single permit. Classified 'freelance-permit' because a general self-employment permit exists for all nationalities; 'dedicated-nomad-visa' is not claimed because no digital-nomad conditions exist; 'long-stay-path' is arguable because the permit requires a Serbian registered business and a positive NSZ assessment, which can refuse. Not checked: the business-registry (APR) steps and costs for a foreign founder.

Bucharest

IGI — long-stay visa categories (digital nomad D/DN under OUG 194/2002 as amended by Law 22/2022) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Apr 27, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Romania has a dedicated digital nomad long-stay visa and residence permit (income ≥ 3× the average gross monthly wage; 1 year, renewable once). It does not lead to permanent residence — for a durable stay a non-EU freelancer uses the business-activity or professional-activity permit (both reach long-term residence after 5 years).

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

INS — Household income and expenditure 2024 (single-adult consumption basket), converted to USD ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

May 31, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

INS 2024 single-adult household basket: total spending ≈ 3,972 RON/mo, of which consumption ≈ 60.6% ≈ 2,407 RON; minus a small actual-rentals component (Romanian households mostly own, imputed rent excluded) → ≈ 2,335 RON/mo of consumption excluding rent. Converted at 4.59 RON/USD (ECB 5.2321 RON/EUR ÷ 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) → ≈ $509, rounded to $510. Utilities are kept in the basket; only pure rent is excluded. National figure — Bucharest runs somewhat higher.

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101), rate per 100k ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Latest year in the Eurostat/UNODC joint series is 2024: 0.79 per 100k (2023: 0.73; 2022: 0.93). Among the lower homicide rates in the EU.

Belgrade

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).

Bucharest

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2020

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precipitation < 150mm: Apr (18.5), May (24.1), Sep (25.0), Oct (18.0) = 4. June (28.1) just exceeds the 28°C ceiling; Jul (30.4) and Aug (30.6) are hot. All months are under 150mm precipitation.

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

Agenția pentru Protecția Mediului București (APMB) 2024 preliminary air-quality report — RNMCA reference stations, reproduced in Ecopolis/Platforma de Mediu 2024 Bucharest air report ↗

Official source

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Mean of the three reporting RNMCA reference-grade urban stations in Bucharest, 2024 annual PM2.5 means (APMB, 2024): Cercul Militar Național 14.12, Drumul Taberei 12.1, Lacul Morii 18.9 µg/m³ → mean ≈ 15.0 µg/m³. RNMCA (Rețeaua Națională de Monitorizare a Calității Aerului) is the official national reference network; APMB is the Bucharest environmental agency. Figures read from the Ecopolis/Platforma de Mediu 2024 report, which reproduces the APMB station values.

Notes

Reference-grade RNMCA stations read 12–19 µg/m³ (2024), all below the EU limit (25) but 2–4× the WHO 2021 guideline (5) and above the 2030 EU limit (10). The separate municipal low-cost sensor network (rețeaua PMB) reported a higher city average of 25.3 µg/m³ — those sensors are not reference-grade and are not used here. Historic single-year values: ~18.4 µg/m³ (2019, WHO/IQAir). Winter heating and traffic are the main sources; summers are cleaner. The EEA city viewer value could not be read (JavaScript-only tool); this uses the national reference network instead, per the criterion's allowed fallback.

Bucharest

Signal Iduna 360 Care / Groupama / Regina Maria comprehensive (with-inpatient) plans — market midpoint; insurers quote on request ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jul 4, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Comprehensive private health plans that include hospitalization and surgery (outpatient + inpatient): Signal Iduna 360 Care starts 380 RON/mo, with a stated 34-year-old example at 424 RON/mo; premium all-inclusive tiers (Groupama, Regina Maria, MedLife/Medicover subscriptions with hospital cover) run up to ~650 RON/mo. Healthy-35-year-old midpoint ≈ 460 RON/mo ≈ 5,520 RON/yr ≈ $1,200; recorded $1,250 (range ≈ $1,000–$1,700 at 4.59 RON/USD). Premiums are quoted on request, so this is a curated market midpoint, not a public engine quote.

Notes

Residents are covered by mandatory public health insurance (CASS/CNAS); private cover is optional. Many buy only a cheaper outpatient medical subscription (abonament, ~150–250 RON/mo) and use the public system for hospital care. This figure is the with-inpatient comprehensive tier, chosen to be comparable with other countries' comprehensive plans.

Belgrade

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'.

Bucharest

Legea 141/2025 — 16% tax on crypto gains from 2026 (M.Of. 699/2025, ANAF copy); OUG 10/2025 transposing MiCA (ASF as CASP regulator) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jan 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Holding and trading crypto is legal for individuals. Gains taxed at 16% on income realized from 2026 (up from 10%), plus CASS in some cases; small-transaction exemption (<200 RON per transaction, ≤600 RON/year total). MiCA transposed via OUG 10/2025 with ASF as the crypto-asset-service-provider regulator and BNR over e-money tokens; the transitional CASP regime ends 2026-07-01. Standard EU licensing/AML and taxation → legal-regulated.

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

Romania is a fully liberalized EU/EEA capital-account economy (RON freely convertible; EU free movement of capital); IMF AREAER classification ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jul 4, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Composite: no currency or capital controls (EU free movement of capital; RON freely convertible, EUR adoption pending); non-residents and foreigners can open bank accounts; no FBAR-style foreign-account reporting for individuals beyond EU CRS via banks; the Declarația Unică covers resident worldwide income. Cash-payment limits exist (business ~5,000–10,000 RON/day tranches under Law 70/2015) but personal money movement is free. Low state control over personal money flows. Cross-checked against PwC Romania summary; primary basis is EU capital-freedom law.

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

Carrier official pages (Sameday easybox, FAN Courier FANbox, Poșta Română) — composite ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2025

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Sameday easybox >3,900 lockers with guaranteed nationwide next-day delivery; FAN Courier (national leader) with its own FANbox locker chain; Cargus, DPD, GLS, Poșta Română nationwide; parcel-locker + PUDO delivery is the e-commerce norm (eMAG/Sameday ecosystem). Next-day is standard between and within cities.

Notes

Dense locker network and reliable next-day service place Romania at the top domestic tier.

Belgrade

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 ↗

Official source

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.

Bucharest

European Commission — removal of the €150 customs duty exemption (Reg. EU 2026/382) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Intra-EU shipping is frictionless (single market; all major carriers; Romania in Schengen since 2025). Non-EU imports: the €150 duty-free threshold was removed EU-wide on 2026-07-01 — a temporary flat duty applies to low-value consignments until the 2028 Customs Data Hub; VAT collected at checkout via IOSS. DHL, UPS, FedEx, GLS all deliver door-to-door. Predictable but no longer duty-free.

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Romania ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2023

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Median of 343 daily country medians, 112,070 tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; the 2024 file covers only 86 days and 2025 is not yet published).

Notes

M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. Romania is known for very fast, cheap fibre; the true typical fibre speed is far higher, but only M-Lab is used here for cross-country consistency.

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

EF EPI 2025 (rank 11/123, score 605 — Very High band) ↗

Research

Data as of

Nov 1, 2025

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First). Romania scores 605 (rank 11), in EF's top proficiency band alongside the Nordics. English is broadly workable in cities, the service sector and among younger Romanians; less so in some government offices.

Belgrade

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.

Bucharest

IB World Schools directory (ibo.org), AEFE établissements, German Auslandsschulnetz (ZfA) — accreditor registries ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jul 4, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Accreditor-verified count for the Bucharest metro area, counting each school against its own accreditor: IB World Schools in Bucharest metro (AISB, Genesis College, Bucharest-Beirut International School, Olga Gudynn International School, Verita International School, Hermann Oberth International German School, International School of Bucharest, Mark Twain International School in Voluntari, Cambridge School of Bucharest — IB-authorized 2024-04-18 per ibo.org school 006882) = 9; plus Lycée Français Anna de Noailles (AEFE homologué, aefe.gouv.fr) and Deutsche Schule Bukarest (German ZfA 'Deutsche Auslandsschule', auslandsschulnetz.de) = 11 total. Romania has 13 IB World Schools in all (IB Yearbook); most are in the Bucharest metro.

Notes

±2 uncertainty. The official IB 'Find an IB School' finder (RO) is bot-walled (HTTP 403), so the IB set was assembled from the IB Yearbook (ibyb.org), individual ibo.org school pages, and an IB-finder-mirroring database; the French (AEFE) and German (ZfA) schools are verified against those accreditors directly. CIS/COBIS-only schools (e.g. ISB is also CIS) are not double-counted. Excludes purely local bilingual schools without one of the recognized international accreditations.