Montenegro’s preliminary income data put the monthly threshold for entering the higher-middle-income group at about 1,014 euros for a single adult, MONSTAT said, based on income data for 2024. For a couple with two children under 14, the comparable threshold is about 2,130 euros, but neither figure is an estimate of the cost of living comfortably.
MONSTAT, Montenegro’s statistical office, published preliminary results of its 2025 survey on 30 July 2026. The survey’s income figures relate to the previous year, illustrating why the date results are published need not be the period covered by the data.
The calculation uses a threshold of 150% of the national median equivalised disposable income. MONSTAT’s preliminary figures set the at-risk-of-poverty threshold for a single person at 4,868 euros a year, or 60% of the median; applying the 150% measure produces a monthly figure of about 1,014 euros.
Disposable income covers household income after taxes and contributions, including earnings, investment income and social benefits. It is not the same as an employee’s average or minimum wage. The median divides the population into two equal groups by equivalised income, with half below and half above it.
Different data produce different thresholds
The 1,014-euro figure differs from the 825 euros used in an earlier European comparison because the two calculations rely on different statistical bases and survey years. The Eurostat comparison used a 6,600-euro annual median for Montenegro from survey data for 2024; the newer MONSTAT figures are preliminary and do not replace Montenegro’s entry in that original international ranking.
Under the Eurostat equivalence scale, the first adult in a household receives a weight of 1, each additional person aged 14 or older a weight of 0.5, and each younger child a weight of 0.3. That gives a couple a household coefficient of 1.5 and two adults with two children under 14 a coefficient of 2.1. The newer calculation puts the threshold for two adults without children at about 1,521 euros a month.
The scale reflects the fact that household members share housing and other costs, so a single-person threshold is not simply multiplied by the number of people in a household. The earlier comparison listed monthly thresholds of 825 euros for a single person, 1,238 euros for a couple and 1,733 euros for a couple with two children under 14.
In that comparison, Montenegro’s 825-euro threshold for a single person ranked fourth from the bottom among 34 countries, ahead of North Macedonia, Albania and Turkey. The comparable figure was about 975 euros in Serbia, 1,882 euros in Croatia and 2,552 euros in Slovenia. The European Union’s combined threshold was about 2,867 euros, while Germany’s was approximately 3,611 euros.
Those amounts do not represent the cost of the same basket of goods and services: each is calculated against its country’s median, and the figures are not adjusted for price differences. They therefore do not indicate equal purchasing power across countries. The OECD classifies middle-income households as those with incomes from 75% to 200% of the national median, with the higher-middle-income group beginning at 150%.
Household costs shape financial security
A person receiving 1,014 euros a month and paying 500 euros in rent would have 514 euros left before other expenses. That is an illustration of rent’s effect on a budget, not an estimate of market rents; a household without rent or a housing loan could allocate the same income differently.
MONSTAT’s results also show that 51.6% of the population lives in households unable to afford an unexpected financial expense, while 51.8% cannot afford a week’s annual holiday away from home. Assessing financial security alongside income therefore also requires consideration of housing costs, debt, household size and the ability to build savings; the threshold itself measures a household’s position in the income distribution.
