Suwałki has been ranked as the cheapest of Poland’s 66 cities with county status for everyday living costs, with Grudziądz and Toruń completing the top three. The ranking, compiled by Polish data service Znane Dane using official Statistics Poland figures, compares food and household utility costs but does not include the price of buying or renting a home.
The index gives Suwałki a score of 87.5, where 100 represents the average across the 66 cities included. That puts its measured basket of everyday expenses around 12.5% below the group average. Grudziądz follows on 88.2 and Toruń on 91.1, according to the Znane Dane ranking.
Łódź, one of Poland’s largest cities, takes fourth place with an index of 91.7, followed by Łomża at 91.8, Biała Podlaska at 92.1, Skierniewice at 93.0, Chełm at 93.1, Białystok at 94.0 and Kielce at 94.1.
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The full top ten is therefore:
- Suwałki — 87.5
- Grudziądz — 88.2
- Toruń — 91.1
- Łódź — 91.7
- Łomża — 91.8
- Biała Podlaska — 92.1
- Skierniewice — 93.0
- Chełm — 93.1
- Białystok — 94.0
- Kielce — 94.1
What the ranking actually measures
The headline result needs an important qualification. This is not a comprehensive calculation of every cost faced by a household.
The Znane Dane methodology gives 67% of the index to food prices and 33% to utilities, principally water, sewage and heating. Food prices come from Statistics Poland data at regional level, while some utility information is available locally. Food prices are also smoothed using a 12-month moving average to reduce seasonal distortions.
Together, those categories represent only around one-third of a typical household budget, according to the methodology. Electricity and gas are not included because their regulated pricing produces relatively little geographic variation.
Perhaps most importantly, housing is not part of the cost index.
Znane Dane treats residential property as a separate measure of affordability and publishes transaction prices alongside the everyday-cost ranking rather than folding them into it. Rent is also not included.
That means describing Suwałki simply as “Poland’s cheapest place to live” would go further than the data supports. It ranks first for the particular basket of current household expenses being measured.
Cheap groceries do not necessarily mean cheap housing
The distinction produces some striking results.
Suwałki has Poland’s lowest everyday-cost index but an average apartment transaction price of around PLN 7,270 per square metre in the dataset. Grudziądz, which comes second for everyday costs, is considerably cheaper for property at about PLN 5,535 per square metre.
Warsaw offers the opposite example. Its everyday-cost index stands at 104.7 — above the group average but far from the highest — while its average apartment price in the same dataset is around PLN 17,025 per square metre, more than twice the Suwałki figure.
Kraków’s everyday-cost index is 95.8, meaning its food-and-utilities basket actually comes below the 66-city average, even though its apartment price is around PLN 14,565 per square metre. Wrocław records an index of 99.6 and an average property price of around PLN 12,567 per square metre.
The figures underline why housing and current consumption costs need to be considered separately when comparing Polish cities.
Jelenia Góra at the other end
At the opposite end of the everyday-cost ranking is Jelenia Góra, with an index of 118.3, followed by Konin at 117.5 and Rybnik at 115.8.
According to Znane Dane, the measured everyday-cost basket in Jelenia Góra is roughly 35% more expensive than in Suwałki. Yet Jelenia Góra’s average apartment price, around PLN 6,574 per square metre, is actually lower than in Suwałki.
Again, a city can therefore rank poorly for food and utilities while remaining relatively inexpensive for property — or vice versa.
Ranking built from official data, but not an official GUS league table
The underlying figures come principally from Statistics Poland’s Local Data Bank and Knowledge Databases, but the ranking and its composite index are produced by Znane Dane, not by Statistics Poland itself.
The site says its current cost-of-living calculation uses Statistics Poland food-price data from August 2026 and housing data from February 2026, alongside utility information. The ranking was most recently updated on 23 September.
Its methodology also stresses that the reference value of 100 is the average of the 66 cities with county status, not a national Polish average covering every town and rural area.
That matters because Poland has hundreds of smaller towns, many of which may have lower housing or everyday costs but cannot be included in this particular index because comparable data are not available at the same level of detail.
For people considering where to live, the ranking is therefore best viewed as one piece of the affordability picture: Suwałki currently performs best for food and selected utilities among Poland’s largest administratively comparable cities, but salaries, rents, housing prices, transport costs and employment opportunities can substantially change the overall calculation.
