Published by Gbaf News
Posted on August 22, 2018
7 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Crammed into the Acropolis – Athens offers the least space per person
If you’ve ever felt like you have to elbow people around you out of your way just to be able to breathe, now you can find out why – TotallyMoney have conducted research into the amount of space each person has to themselves in cities across Europe.
As well as showing the cities’ areas divided by their population, the research highlights the average size of a property in that city, how much space in a property the average monthly salary in each location can purchase, and what that looks like in real terms – as represented by playing cards.
Ljubilant Slovenians and Italians with Space to Roam in
While Athenians and Belgians find themselves the most cramped (with 133.31m2 and 137.34m2 for each person, respectively, both about half the size of a tennis court), other cities were less dense. For a breath of fresh air, you might want to try living in:
London Living
London fared poorly in the research – not only is it the fourth densest location included, with only 177.56m2 per person (about the size of 150 bath towels), the price of property was the highest, at £12,930 for a square metre of a house.
To put that into context, it shared the lowest salary-to-property price ratio with Lisbon, Rome, and Paris, despite having the second highest monthly salary in Europe, after Switzerland.
In other words – the only thing London has room for is improvement!
Joe Gardiner, TotallyMoney’s Head of Brand and Communications, said: “In big cities it can feel like you’re surrounded by people – especially if you commute on public transport. But it’s surprising how much disparity there is across Europe in terms of space – and especially that Athens is the most packed.
In terms of prices, it won’t be a shock as to the most expensive locations – London, Bern, and Paris. But we hope this study highlights how far your money can go in other locations.”
For more of the smallest spaces and to see how they all match up when you lay them out next to each other, have a look at the full research on the TotallyMoney website here.
Crammed into the Acropolis – Athens offers the least space per person
If you’ve ever felt like you have to elbow people around you out of your way just to be able to breathe, now you can find out why – TotallyMoney have conducted research into the amount of space each person has to themselves in cities across Europe.
As well as showing the cities’ areas divided by their population, the research highlights the average size of a property in that city, how much space in a property the average monthly salary in each location can purchase, and what that looks like in real terms – as represented by playing cards.
Ljubilant Slovenians and Italians with Space to Roam in
While Athenians and Belgians find themselves the most cramped (with 133.31m2 and 137.34m2 for each person, respectively, both about half the size of a tennis court), other cities were less dense. For a breath of fresh air, you might want to try living in:
London Living
London fared poorly in the research – not only is it the fourth densest location included, with only 177.56m2 per person (about the size of 150 bath towels), the price of property was the highest, at £12,930 for a square metre of a house.
To put that into context, it shared the lowest salary-to-property price ratio with Lisbon, Rome, and Paris, despite having the second highest monthly salary in Europe, after Switzerland.
In other words – the only thing London has room for is improvement!
Joe Gardiner, TotallyMoney’s Head of Brand and Communications, said: “In big cities it can feel like you’re surrounded by people – especially if you commute on public transport. But it’s surprising how much disparity there is across Europe in terms of space – and especially that Athens is the most packed.
In terms of prices, it won’t be a shock as to the most expensive locations – London, Bern, and Paris. But we hope this study highlights how far your money can go in other locations.”
For more of the smallest spaces and to see how they all match up when you lay them out next to each other, have a look at the full research on the TotallyMoney website here.
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