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SettleMetric

CITY / CITYVerified city comparison

BelgradevsTbilisi.

Belgrade and Tbilisi are even on the headline facts, with 3 stronger results each out of 8. Cost of living (single, excl. rent): Belgrade $509/mo, Tbilisi $220/mo. Freelancer tax burden: Belgrade 11.5%, Tbilisi 1%. Climate comfort: Belgrade 5/12 mo, Tbilisi 4/12 mo.

VerifiedUpdated

14 compared criteria · 30 sources · country-level facts are clearly inherited

rs / ge · SettleMetric

01

The key differences

The key numbers head-to-head — the stronger side is marked. The overall score stays decoration; what matters is which facts fit you.

Headline result

Even — 3 of 8 each

Belgrade

3

Tbilisi

3

01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Belgrade
$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.
Tbilisistronger
$220/mo

Geostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Geostat 2025 average per-capita monthly consumption (603 GEL) split by the survey's COICOP category shares, with the imputed-housing portion removed, converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD (NBG 2026-07-02). Categories sum to this figure. Geostat has no clean single-person-excl-rent basket, so treat as a curated estimate.
02Freelancer tax burden
Belgrade
11.5%

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.
Tbilisistronger
1%

SettleMetric tax engine over Tax Code (Small Business Status)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jan 1, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Best eligible scheme ge-small-business-1pct at €60,000 = 180,738 GEL (NBG 3.0123 GEL/EUR), below the 500,000 GEL threshold → 1% turnover tax = 1,807 GEL, no mandatory social/pension. Effective burden ≈ 1.0%.
03Homicide rate
Belgradestronger
1.15/100k

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.
Tbilisi
2.03/100k

UNODC (via World Bank mirror) — intentional homicide, Georgia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2019
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
2019 is the latest year UNODC publishes for Georgia. Low by global standards (world average ≈ 5.8); Georgia is widely regarded as very safe for residents. No city-level series is published.
04Climate comfort
Belgradestronger
5/12 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).
Tbilisi
4/12 mo

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2020
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precip < 150mm: Apr, May, Sep, Oct = 4. June (28.7°C) and Jul–Aug (~32°C) are too hot.
05Internet speed
Belgradestronger
26 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.
Tbilisi
16 Mbps

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Georgia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2023
Verified
Jul 4, 2026
Method
Median of 343 daily country medians (download_MED), 47,852 download tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; the 2024 file is only Jan–Mar, and 2025/2026 are not yet published). Georgia sits under continent code AS in M-Lab.
Notes
M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. Cross-check: the World Bank's July-2024 median of ~20 Mbps (Ookla-derived, so not citable here) is consistent with this once the M-Lab-reads-low offset is accounted for. Speeds are trending up (~10%/yr: M-Lab yearly medians ran 9.7 in 2020 → 15.8 in 2023), so multi-year pooling would understate current speed; the latest full year is used instead. GNCC/comcom.ge publishes operator quality-of-service measurements (e.g. Magticom fixed ~56 Mb/s advertised-tier average, 2025/26) but no national measured median, and its own speed commentary relies on the same Ookla data we can't redistribute.
06English proficiency
Belgrade
High

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.
Tbilisi
High

EF EPI 2025 (score 541, rank 35/123 — High band)

Research

Data as of
Nov 1, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First). English is workable in Tbilisi/Batumi tourism and the younger service sector; less so in government and older generations. Russian remains widely understood.
07Private healthcare cost
Belgrade
no verified data
Tbilisi
$450/yr

Georgian insurers (Ardi, GPI, Imedi L) — comprehensive-tier plans

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Midpoint of comprehensive local plans: Ardi Medi Premium from ~$340/yr up to market comprehensive ~$795/yr (converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD). Expat international plans run higher ($1,000–2,000/yr).
Notes
Georgian insurers quote by callback rather than public age-rated engines, so this is a curated market midpoint for local comprehensive cover, not a bound quote.
08Air quality (PM2.5)
Belgrade
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.
Tbilisistronger
15.1 µg/m³

IQAir 2024 World Air Quality Report

Research

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Attribution: IQAir (aggregator of ground stations + validated sensors). About 3× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³); within the current EU limit (25). Georgia's official NEA portal publishes only real-time readings, not an annual mean.

02

Which city fits your plan?

Each lens weighs only the facts that matter to that plan, and names the side it favours.

Remote IT / freelancer

Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.

Tbilisi fits better — 2 of 5

01Freelancer tax burden
Belgrade
11.5%

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.
Tbilisistronger
1%

SettleMetric tax engine over Tax Code (Small Business Status)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jan 1, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Best eligible scheme ge-small-business-1pct at €60,000 = 180,738 GEL (NBG 3.0123 GEL/EUR), below the 500,000 GEL threshold → 1% turnover tax = 1,807 GEL, no mandatory social/pension. Effective burden ≈ 1.0%.
02Internet speed
Belgradestronger
26 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.
Tbilisi
16 Mbps

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Georgia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2023
Verified
Jul 4, 2026
Method
Median of 343 daily country medians (download_MED), 47,852 download tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; the 2024 file is only Jan–Mar, and 2025/2026 are not yet published). Georgia sits under continent code AS in M-Lab.
Notes
M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. Cross-check: the World Bank's July-2024 median of ~20 Mbps (Ookla-derived, so not citable here) is consistent with this once the M-Lab-reads-low offset is accounted for. Speeds are trending up (~10%/yr: M-Lab yearly medians ran 9.7 in 2020 → 15.8 in 2023), so multi-year pooling would understate current speed; the latest full year is used instead. GNCC/comcom.ge publishes operator quality-of-service measurements (e.g. Magticom fixed ~56 Mb/s advertised-tier average, 2025/26) but no national measured median, and its own speed commentary relies on the same Ookla data we can't redistribute.
03English proficiency
Belgrade
High

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.
Tbilisi
High

EF EPI 2025 (score 541, rank 35/123 — High band)

Research

Data as of
Nov 1, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First). English is workable in Tbilisi/Batumi tourism and the younger service sector; less so in government and older generations. Russian remains widely understood.
04Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Belgrade
$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.
Tbilisistronger
$220/mo

Geostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Geostat 2025 average per-capita monthly consumption (603 GEL) split by the survey's COICOP category shares, with the imputed-housing portion removed, converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD (NBG 2026-07-02). Categories sum to this figure. Geostat has no clean single-person-excl-rent basket, so treat as a curated estimate.
05Domestic delivery quality
Belgrade
Good

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.
Tbilisi
Good

Georgian Post + courier service pages (composite)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Georgian Post ~500 branches nationwide (1–3 day domestic parcels, some lockers/pickup points); Wolt Drive and Glovo last-mile in Tbilisi/Batumi; DHL/FedEx/UPS present. Dense and reliable in cities; locker density and nationwide same-day coverage thinner than EU leaders → good, not excellent.

Family

Relocating with a partner and school-age children.

Belgrade fits better — 2 of 5

01International schools
Belgradestronger
9

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.
Tbilisi
3

IB World Schools directory / IB Georgia association

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
IB World Schools in Tbilisi: New School (PYP+MYP+DP), Newton Free School, European School. At least 3; the ibo.org finder blocked automated access (±1).
Notes
~16 international schools operate in Tbilisi; 3 are IB-authorized.
02Homicide rate
Belgradestronger
1.15/100k

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.
Tbilisi
2.03/100k

UNODC (via World Bank mirror) — intentional homicide, Georgia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2019
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
2019 is the latest year UNODC publishes for Georgia. Low by global standards (world average ≈ 5.8); Georgia is widely regarded as very safe for residents. No city-level series is published.
03Private healthcare cost
Belgrade
no verified data
Tbilisi
$450/yr

Georgian insurers (Ardi, GPI, Imedi L) — comprehensive-tier plans

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Midpoint of comprehensive local plans: Ardi Medi Premium from ~$340/yr up to market comprehensive ~$795/yr (converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD). Expat international plans run higher ($1,000–2,000/yr).
Notes
Georgian insurers quote by callback rather than public age-rated engines, so this is a curated market midpoint for local comprehensive cover, not a bound quote.
04Air quality (PM2.5)
Belgrade
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.
Tbilisistronger
15.1 µg/m³

IQAir 2024 World Air Quality Report

Research

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Attribution: IQAir (aggregator of ground stations + validated sensors). About 3× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³); within the current EU limit (25). Georgia's official NEA portal publishes only real-time readings, not an annual mean.
05English proficiency
Belgrade
High

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.
Tbilisi
High

EF EPI 2025 (score 541, rank 35/123 — High band)

Research

Data as of
Nov 1, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First). English is workable in Tbilisi/Batumi tourism and the younger service sector; less so in government and older generations. Russian remains widely understood.

Money & crypto

Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.

Tbilisi fits better — 3 of 3

01Crypto regulation
Belgrade
Legal 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'.
Tbilisistronger
Legal friendly

National Bank of Georgia — Virtual Asset Service Providers

Official source

Data as of
Jul 1, 2023
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Individuals pay 0% income tax on crypto gains (Minister of Finance Public Decision N201, 2019 — crypto is not Georgian-source income for individuals) and crypto↔fiat exchange is VAT-exempt. Service providers must register as VASPs with the NBG (regime since 1 July 2023). Very favourable for individual holders, hence legal-friendly.
02Financial control level
Belgrade
Moderate

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.
Tbilisistronger
Low

US State Dept 2025 Investment Climate Statement (Georgia) / trade.gov

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
GEL freely convertible (float since 1998; IMF Article VIII since 1996); no capital controls; funds transfer abroad freely (except sanctioned destinations); no routine cash caps or resident foreign-account exit restrictions.
Notes
Caveat: since Georgia joined CRS (2024) and post-2022 de-risking, non-resident bank account onboarding has become notably stricter (source-of-funds documentation, some rejections). The FX regime itself is open; the friction is at bank KYC.
03Freelancer tax burden
Belgrade
11.5%

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.
Tbilisistronger
1%

SettleMetric tax engine over Tax Code (Small Business Status)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jan 1, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Best eligible scheme ge-small-business-1pct at €60,000 = 180,738 GEL (NBG 3.0123 GEL/EUR), below the 500,000 GEL threshold → 1% turnover tax = 1,807 GEL, no mandatory social/pension. Effective burden ≈ 1.0%.

Calm lifestyle

Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.

A close call for this plan

01Homicide rate
Belgradestronger
1.15/100k

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.
Tbilisi
2.03/100k

UNODC (via World Bank mirror) — intentional homicide, Georgia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2019
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
2019 is the latest year UNODC publishes for Georgia. Low by global standards (world average ≈ 5.8); Georgia is widely regarded as very safe for residents. No city-level series is published.
02Air quality (PM2.5)
Belgrade
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.
Tbilisistronger
15.1 µg/m³

IQAir 2024 World Air Quality Report

Research

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Attribution: IQAir (aggregator of ground stations + validated sensors). About 3× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³); within the current EU limit (25). Georgia's official NEA portal publishes only real-time readings, not an annual mean.
03Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Belgrade
$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.
Tbilisistronger
$220/mo

Geostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Geostat 2025 average per-capita monthly consumption (603 GEL) split by the survey's COICOP category shares, with the imputed-housing portion removed, converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD (NBG 2026-07-02). Categories sum to this figure. Geostat has no clean single-person-excl-rent basket, so treat as a curated estimate.
04Climate comfort
Belgradestronger
5/12 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).
Tbilisi
4/12 mo

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2020
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precip < 150mm: Apr, May, Sep, Oct = 4. June (28.7°C) and Jul–Aug (~32°C) are too hot.

03

The full comparison

Open any fact to see what it measures, how fresh it is and the complete source trail for both cities.

01

Taxes

1 verified fact
01+−Freelancer tax burden% effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profileBelgrade11.5Tbilisistronger1

What this measures

Effective total burden (income tax + mandatory social and health contributions) for a solo IT freelancer with €60,000/year revenue and 10% deductible expenses, using the most favourable eligible scheme in the country's tax-schemes data. Computed by the SettleMetric tax engine; recorded as a curated value with the winning scheme id in method.

Lower is better· % effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profile· re-verified every 365 days

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.

Tbilisi

SettleMetric tax engine over Tax Code (Small Business Status)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jan 1, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Best eligible scheme ge-small-business-1pct at €60,000 = 180,738 GEL (NBG 3.0123 GEL/EUR), below the 500,000 GEL threshold → 1% turnover tax = 1,807 GEL, no mandatory social/pension. Effective burden ≈ 1.0%.

02

Legalization

1 verified fact
01+−Remote-work legalization easeBelgradestrongerFreelance permitTbilisiLong stay path

What this measures

Best available legalization route for a location-independent earner with a median (non-EU, non-US) passport, classified from this country's legalization-paths data: dedicated digital-nomad visa; general freelance/self-employment permit; realistic long-stay path (e.g. renewable temporary residence); only short visa-free/tourist stays; effectively none.

Rated by category· re-verified every 180 days

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.

Tbilisi

Government Ordinance N255 — visa-free entry

Official source

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Exceptionally easy in practice: ~94 nationalities (incl. all EU, US, UK, Ukraine, Russia) may stay visa-free for a full year and register an Individual Entrepreneur with 1% Small Business Status the same day — no residence permit needed. Scored as a long-stay path; there is no formal 'digital nomad visa' and the year of visa-free stay does not itself build toward permanent residence.

03

Cost of living

1 verified fact
01+−Cost of living (single, excl. rent)USD/month, single person, excluding rentBelgrade509Tbilisistronger220

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 better· USD/month, single person, excluding rent· re-verified every 365 days

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.

Tbilisi

Geostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Geostat 2025 average per-capita monthly consumption (603 GEL) split by the survey's COICOP category shares, with the imputed-housing portion removed, converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD (NBG 2026-07-02). Categories sum to this figure. Geostat has no clean single-person-excl-rent basket, so treat as a curated estimate.

Monthly spending by category (excl. rent)

Belgrade

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).
Tbilisi

Geostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025 (category shares)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Geostat 2025 per-capita consumption shares (food 38.7%, transport 11.4%, healthcare 11.0%, etc.) applied to the ~$220/mo excl-rent base and converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD. Georgia's very high food share is characteristic of the income level. National average — rent shown separately.
01Food & non-alcoholic beverages
Belgrade
$189
Tbilisi
—
02Food & non-alcoholic drinks
Belgrade
—
Tbilisi
$88
03Housing utilities & dwelling upkeep (water, electricity, gas, heating fuels, maintenance)
Belgrade
$76
Tbilisi
—
04Transport
Belgrade
$46
Tbilisicheaper
$26
05Restaurants, recreation & communications
Belgrade
—
Tbilisi
$41
06Clothing & footwear
Belgrade
$24
Tbilisicheaper
$13
07Miscellaneous goods & services (personal care, personal items, other services)
Belgrade
$31
Tbilisi
—
08Communication
Belgrade
$29
Tbilisi
—
09Recreation & culture
Belgrade
$27
Tbilisi
—
10Healthcare (out-of-pocket)
Belgrade
—
Tbilisi
$25
11Alcoholic beverages & tobacco
Belgrade
$23
Tbilisi
—
12Health (out-of-pocket)
Belgrade
$21
Tbilisi
—
13Furnishings, household equipment & routine maintenance
Belgrade
$20
Tbilisi
—
14Utilities & energy
Belgrade
—
Tbilisi
$18
15Restaurants & hotels
Belgrade
$17
Tbilisi
—
16Education
Belgradecheaper
$6
Tbilisi
$7
17Household goods
Belgrade
—
Tbilisi
$12
Total (excl. rent)
Belgrade$509/mo
Tbilisi$230/mo

04

Housing

0 verified facts

Rent by apartment type

Asking rent, central price with outside-centre in parentheses ($/mo).

Belgrade

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).
Tbilisi

ss.ge / korter.ge listing samples (Tbilisi)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Typical asking-rent medians from active listings (portals quote USD), central = Vake/Saburtalo/Old Tbilisi, outside = outer districts. Small samples — indicative ranges. Georgian portal room counts mapped (a '2-room' listing ≈ a 1-bedroom).
Notes
Asking, not transacted; indicative from small listing samples. Room-count convention: Georgian portals count total rooms, mapped to Western studio/1BR/2BR/3BR.
01Studio
Belgrade
$566$440 outside
Tbilisicheaper
$450$300 outside
021-bedroom
Belgrade
$817$636 outside
Tbilisicheaper
$600$480 outside
032-bedroom
Belgrade
$1,258$978 outside
Tbilisicheaper
$900$650 outside
043-bedroom
Belgrade
$2,012$1,565 outside
Tbilisicheaper
$1,400$1,000 outside

05

Safety

1 verified fact
01+−Homicide rateintentional homicides per 100,000/yearBelgradestronger1.2Tbilisi2

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 better· intentional homicides per 100,000/year· re-verified every 730 days

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.

Tbilisi

UNODC (via World Bank mirror) — intentional homicide, Georgia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2019
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
2019 is the latest year UNODC publishes for Georgia. Low by global standards (world average ≈ 5.8); Georgia is widely regarded as very safe for residents. No city-level series is published.

06

Climate

2 verified facts
01+−Climate comfortpleasant months/yearBelgradestronger5Tbilisi4

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 better· pleasant months/year· re-verified every 3650 days

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).

Tbilisi

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2020
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precip < 150mm: Apr, May, Sep, Oct = 4. June (28.7°C) and Jul–Aug (~32°C) are too hot.
02+−Air quality (PM2.5)µg/m³, annual mean PM2.5Belgrade19.3Tbilisistronger15.1

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 better· µg/m³, annual mean PM2.5· re-verified every 730 days

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.

Tbilisi

IQAir 2024 World Air Quality Report

Research

Data as of
Dec 31, 2024
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Attribution: IQAir (aggregator of ground stations + validated sensors). About 3× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³); within the current EU limit (25). Georgia's official NEA portal publishes only real-time readings, not an annual mean.

07

Healthcare

1 verified fact
01+−Private healthcare costUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldBelgradeno verified dataTbilisi450

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 better· USD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old· re-verified every 365 days

Belgrade

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).

Tbilisi

Georgian insurers (Ardi, GPI, Imedi L) — comprehensive-tier plans

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Midpoint of comprehensive local plans: Ardi Medi Premium from ~$340/yr up to market comprehensive ~$795/yr (converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD). Expat international plans run higher ($1,000–2,000/yr).
Notes
Georgian insurers quote by callback rather than public age-rated engines, so this is a curated market midpoint for local comprehensive cover, not a bound quote.

08

Money & crypto

2 verified facts
01+−Crypto regulationBelgradeLegal regulatedTbilisistrongerLegal friendly

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

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'.

Tbilisi

National Bank of Georgia — Virtual Asset Service Providers

Official source

Data as of
Jul 1, 2023
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Individuals pay 0% income tax on crypto gains (Minister of Finance Public Decision N201, 2019 — crypto is not Georgian-source income for individuals) and crypto↔fiat exchange is VAT-exempt. Service providers must register as VASPs with the NBG (regime since 1 July 2023). Very favourable for individual holders, hence legal-friendly.
02+−Financial control levelBelgradeModerateTbilisistrongerLow

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

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.

Tbilisi

US State Dept 2025 Investment Climate Statement (Georgia) / trade.gov

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Dec 31, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
GEL freely convertible (float since 1998; IMF Article VIII since 1996); no capital controls; funds transfer abroad freely (except sanctioned destinations); no routine cash caps or resident foreign-account exit restrictions.
Notes
Caveat: since Georgia joined CRS (2024) and post-2022 de-risking, non-resident bank account onboarding has become notably stricter (source-of-funds documentation, some rejections). The FX regime itself is open; the friction is at bank KYC.

09

Infrastructure

3 verified facts
01+−Domestic delivery qualityBelgradeGoodTbilisiGood

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

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.

Tbilisi

Georgian Post + courier service pages (composite)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
Georgian Post ~500 branches nationwide (1–3 day domestic parcels, some lockers/pickup points); Wolt Drive and Glovo last-mile in Tbilisi/Batumi; DHL/FedEx/UPS present. Dense and reliable in cities; locker density and nationwide same-day coverage thinner than EU leaders → good, not excellent.
02+−International delivery easeBelgradeMinor frictionTbilisiMinor friction

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

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.

Tbilisi

Revenue Service of Georgia — customs procedures

Official source

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Georgia is outside the EU/EAEU. Personal-import de minimis: 300 GEL (≈ $113) and ≤ 30 kg, once per calendar month, exempt; above that, 18% import VAT + 0–12% duty + a small customs fee. All major integrators (DHL, FedEx, UPS, Aramex) present. Predictable but the low monthly de-minimis cap adds friction.
03+−Internet speedMbps, median fixed downloadBelgradestronger26.2Tbilisi15.8

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 better· Mbps, median fixed download· re-verified every 365 days

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.

Tbilisi

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Georgia

Open data

Data as of
Dec 31, 2023
Verified
Jul 4, 2026
Method
Median of 343 daily country medians (download_MED), 47,852 download tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; the 2024 file is only Jan–Mar, and 2025/2026 are not yet published). Georgia sits under continent code AS in M-Lab.
Notes
M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. Cross-check: the World Bank's July-2024 median of ~20 Mbps (Ookla-derived, so not citable here) is consistent with this once the M-Lab-reads-low offset is accounted for. Speeds are trending up (~10%/yr: M-Lab yearly medians ran 9.7 in 2020 → 15.8 in 2023), so multi-year pooling would understate current speed; the latest full year is used instead. GNCC/comcom.ge publishes operator quality-of-service measurements (e.g. Magticom fixed ~56 Mb/s advertised-tier average, 2025/26) but no national measured median, and its own speed commentary relies on the same Ookla data we can't redistribute.

10

Language

1 verified fact
01+−English proficiencyBelgradeHighTbilisiHigh

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

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.

Tbilisi

EF EPI 2025 (score 541, rank 35/123 — High band)

Research

Data as of
Nov 1, 2025
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Notes
Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First). English is workable in Tbilisi/Batumi tourism and the younger service sector; less so in government and older generations. Russian remains widely understood.

11

Education

1 verified fact
01+−International schoolsaccredited international schools, countBelgradestronger9Tbilisi3

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 better· accredited international schools, count· re-verified every 730 days

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.

Tbilisi

IB World Schools directory / IB Georgia association

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of
Jul 3, 2026
Verified
Jul 3, 2026
Method
IB World Schools in Tbilisi: New School (PYP+MYP+DP), Newton Free School, European School. At least 3; the ibo.org finder blocked automated access (±1).
Notes
~16 international schools operate in Tbilisi; 3 are IB-authorized.