Pricele #25: Milk (1 litre) in United States 🇺🇸

Milk is heavy, perishable and awkward to ship, so it is almost always produced close to where it is drunk. That makes its price a read on local farming costs rather than world markets, and in much of the EU on agricultural subsidies, which push retail prices below what production alone would imply.

Of the 32 countries priced for milk, United States ranks #29 from the top at $1.06, 31% below the median of $1.54.

The United States is the reference point for the Big Mac Index, so its burger price is the baseline every other country is measured against. American fuel is cheap by rich-country standards, since federal and state fuel taxes are a fraction of European levels, while its food prices sit mid-range. It is also the only country here with no VAT at all: sales tax is set by states and municipalities, most states exempt groceries entirely, and the rate genuinely differs between two towns an hour apart. Every other column in this table has a national tax rate that can be quoted; the American one does not, and the figure here is a national average papering over real internal variation.

See the full table for milk in every country or everything priced in United States.