Germany vs every country

25 of the 26 leave you more than Germany does

All 26 comparisons out of Germany, resolved on the same $100,000 of real income — which in Germany is a salary of €71,888. Same purchasing power before tax on every row, so the ranking is made entirely of what each system takes.

Germany leaves $61,065 of it, after income tax and every compulsory contribution. That is 26th of 27, and 38.9% of the gross goes.

The best on this measure is Thailand, $29,287 a year more; the worst is Italy at $744 less. The spread between those two is $30,031 on identical real pay.

And the sentence that has to sit next to the table: this ranks what you keep, not where you would be better off. In some of these countries the tax buys healthcare, university and a pension; in others the household buys them out of the money this table says it kept. There is no dataset that prices that difference, so the ranking does not pretend to.

Every destination from Germany, resolved

Each one on its own page, with the full working, the break-even salary and what the figures cannot measure:

Germany vs Thailand — +$29,287 a year. Thailand keeps $90,352 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 9.6%; prices index 32.3 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs India — +$28,191 a year. India keeps $89,256 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 10.7%; prices index 22.7 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Hong Kong — +$26,740 a year. Hong Kong keeps $87,804 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 12.2%; prices index 74 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Pakistan — +$19,345 a year. Pakistan keeps $80,410 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 19.6%; prices index 23.4 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs the Philippines — +$16,733 a year. The Philippines keeps $77,798 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 22.2%; prices index 35.7 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Singapore — +$16,665 a year. Singapore keeps $77,729 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 22.3%; prices index 78.3 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Malaysia — +$15,759 a year. Malaysia keeps $76,824 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 23.2%; prices index 33.4 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Switzerland — +$15,412 a year. Switzerland keeps $76,477 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 23.5%; prices index 128.2 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Malta — +$14,571 a year. Malta keeps $75,636 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 24.4%; prices index 69 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs South Africa — +$13,093 a year. South Africa keeps $74,158 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 25.8%; prices index 43.3 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Australia — +$12,860 a year. Australia keeps $73,925 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 26.1%; prices index 94.8 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs the United Kingdom — +$11,984 a year. The United Kingdom keeps $73,049 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 27.0%; prices index 92.4 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Jamaica — +$11,480 a year. Jamaica keeps $72,545 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 27.5%; prices index 61.7 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Canada — +$11,372 a year. Canada keeps $72,437 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 27.6%; prices index 90.2 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Japan — +$11,334 a year. Japan keeps $72,399 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 27.6%; prices index 69 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs New Zealand — +$10,805 a year. New Zealand keeps $71,870 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 28.1%; prices index 89.8 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Spain — +$7,869 a year. Spain keeps $68,934 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 31.1%; prices index 68.7 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs France — +$7,785 a year. France keeps $68,850 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 31.2%; prices index 82.8 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs the Netherlands — +$7,200 a year. The Netherlands keeps $68,265 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 31.7%; prices index 86.7 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Ireland — +$5,136 a year. Ireland keeps $66,201 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 33.8%; prices index 102.1 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Luxembourg — +$4,213 a year. Luxembourg keeps $65,278 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 34.7%; prices index 98.6 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Austria — +$4,182 a year. Austria keeps $65,246 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 34.8%; prices index 84.8 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Portugal — +$2,929 a year. Portugal keeps $63,994 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 36.0%; prices index 64.9 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Sweden — +$1,022 a year. Sweden keeps $62,087 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 37.9%; prices index 90.5 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Ethiopia — +$296 a year. Ethiopia keeps $61,361 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 38.6%; prices index 22.6 against 81.2 here.

Germany vs Italy — $744 a year less. Italy keeps $60,321 of the same real income, at an effective rate of 39.7%; prices index 72.9 against 81.2 here.

What actually comes out of a German payslip

The figure above is not income tax. It is income tax plus every compulsory contribution, which in most countries is the larger of the two and in a few is more than twice as large.

On €71,888: income tax €13,011 and contributions €14,979 — 18.1% and 20.8% of gross.

The contributions are Statutory pension insurance at €6,686, Unemployment insurance at €935, Statutory health insurance, including the average supplementary rate at €6,103, Long-term care insurance at €1,256.

The tax is charged on zu versteuerndes Einkommen, which on this salary is €56,787 — not the gross. That distinction is where most cross-country comparisons go wrong before any arithmetic starts.

Sources for every one of those figures: Bundesministerium der Finanzen; GKV-Spitzenverband. The full citations are at the foot of each comparison page.

What these comparisons do not tell you

What the tax buys. The largest omission and the one worth repeating on every page. Out-of-pocket health spending per person is the one piece of it that exists as a comparable figure — $945 in Germany, 2023 — and it is one line of several.

Whether the salary exists. Every row holds real income constant, which is the right way to compare tax systems and the wrong way to plan a move. Output per person in Germany is $75,407; on some of these rows the other country's figure is very different, and a salary that is ordinary in one is exceptional in the other.

Your household. Every figure is a single filer with no children, on the main regional scale, with no deductions beyond the standard ones. Joint assessment, family quotients and child credits change the answer and in some pairs reverse it.

The year you move. Tax residence rules decide which country taxes you while you are crossing, and a treaty decides it where both claim you. None of that is modelled.

Still not modelled in Germany: The 0.6% long-term care surcharge for employees without children is paid entirely by the employee and is not applied here; the figure shown is the case with children.

Still not modelled in Germany: Saxony splits the long-term care contribution differently, with the employee paying 0.5 points more than elsewhere in Germany.

Still not modelled in Germany: The solidarity surcharge is charged on the income tax itself above a threshold and is not modelled; it now reaches only higher earners.

Still not modelled in Germany: Church tax of 8% or 9% of the income tax applies only to registered members of a taxing religious body and is not modelled.

How it is worked out

Salaries are converted with the World Bank's purchasing power parity factor for household consumption, not with an exchange rate. An exchange rate measures what money is worth if you carry it abroad; what matters here is what it buys where it is earned.

World Bank, International Comparison Program — PPP conversion factor, household final consumption expenditure (LCU per international $), 2025 — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PRVT.PP

World Bank — Price level ratio of PPP conversion factor to market exchange rate, 2025 (United States = 100) — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PPP.03.CD

World Health Organization Global Health Expenditure Database, via World Bank — Out-of-pocket health expenditure per capita, PPP, 2023 — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.OOPC.PP.CD

The price figures are the 2025 release and are not extrapolated. Tax rates and contribution rates come from the authority that sets each one, cited on each page with the date it was read.

Germany income tax calculator has the German scale on its own, in detail, including the parts that only matter inside the country.

Questions

Where would a German salary go furthest?

Thailand leaves the most — $29,287 a year more than Germany on the same real income — and 25 of the 26 countries here leave more than Germany does. That is what you keep, not what you get back for it.

How much of a salary does Germany take?

38.9% of a €71,888 salary, counting income tax (€13,011) and every compulsory contribution (€14,979). The headline income tax rate on its own describes 18.1% of it.

Why compare in international dollars?

Because an exchange rate tells you what your money is worth if you take it somewhere else, and a salary is spent where it is earned. The conversion here is the World Bank's purchasing power parity factor for household consumption, which prices a comparable basket in each country. $100,000 of real income is €71,888 in Germany.

Does this say which country is better to live in?

No, and it deliberately does not. It measures what a salary leaves you after everything compulsory, in a unit that lets two countries be compared. What the tax buys back — healthcare, education, pensions, unemployment cover — is the other half of the question, and there is no dataset that prices it. Every page here says so rather than quietly picking a winner.