Pricele #51: Apples (1 kg) in Sweden 🇸🇪
The puzzle for 20 August 2026 asked what a kilogram of apples costs in Sweden. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
Apples (1 kg) · Sweden
$3.23
30.8 SEK
About 9 minutes of the average local wage buys a kilogram of apples.
More expensive than 71% of the 32 countries in the game.
Source: Numbeo (crowd-sourced), retrieved 2026-08.
About apples
Apples separate the countries that grow them from the countries that fly them in. They need a temperate climate and cold storage, so in tropical and high-income import markets a kilogram can cost several times what it does in a producing country, which is why the top of this table looks nothing like the top of the others.
Where Sweden sits
Of the 32 countries priced for apples, Sweden ranks #10 from the top at $3.23, 1.1× the median of $2.84.
Sweden has high fuel taxes and high wages, a combination that puts it near the top of the table in dollar terms and much nearer the middle once measured in work time. Groceries are cheaper than in Norway, since Sweden's agricultural protection is lighter. Food is taxed at 12% against a 25% standard rate, so the Swedish food carve-out is real but less generous than the southern European ones. Sweden and Norway make the most informative Nordic pair in this table: comparable wages and climates, meaningfully different agricultural and fuel policies, and a visible price gap that follows from them.
What else costs what in Sweden
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $7.26 | 67 SEK | 21 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $1.76 | 18.9 SEK | 5 min |
| Cappuccino | $4.86 | 46.34 SEK | 14 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.71 | 16.3 SEK | 5 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $4.37 | 41.67 SEK | 12 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $1.88 | 17.92 SEK | 5 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $2.11 | 20.14 SEK | 6 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $26.30 | 251 SEK | 75 min |
| Natural gas (100 kWh) | $22.40 | 214 SEK | 64 min |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $7.27 | 78 SEK | 21 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $0.97 | 10.36 SEK | 3 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $21.38 | 229.29 SEK | 61 min |
| Vape e-liquid (1 ml) | $3.22 | 34.5 SEK | 9 min |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $2.33 | — | 7 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $3.72 | 36.55 SEK | 11 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for apples in every country or everything priced in Sweden.