Pricele #55: A day's healthy diet in Uruguay 🇺🇾
The puzzle for 24 August 2026 asked what a day's healthy diet costs in Uruguay. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
A day's healthy diet · Uruguay
$3.29
135.52 UYU
About 26 minutes of the average local wage buys a day's healthy diet.
More expensive than 81% of the 49 countries in the game.
Source: World Bank Food Prices for Nutrition, 2025 (converted at the World Bank official exchange rate).
About healthy diet
This is not a shopping basket anyone actually buys. It is the cheapest combination of foods on sale locally that would meet dietary guidelines, which makes it a floor rather than an average, and the number economists use to count how many people cannot reach it. Over two and a half billion people live in countries where a day of it costs more than they have to spend on food.
Where Uruguay sits
Of the 49 countries priced for healthy diet, Uruguay ranks #10 from the top at $3.29, 1.3× the median of $2.57.
Uruguay is small, high-income by South American standards, and expensive in a way that surprises people who expect it to price like its neighbours. Part of that is a market of three and a half million people; part is a 22% IVA, the highest standard rate in the Americas. Food drops to 10% and milk is exempt outright, so the tax wedge on a grocery basket is narrower than the headline suggests. Beef is the exception that proves the rule: Uruguay exports a great deal of it, and it is priced for a local buyer accordingly.
| Nearby on the healthy diet table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | $3.24 | 5.58 NZD | 9 min |
| France | $3.28 | 2.9 EUR | 11 min |
| Uruguay | $3.29 | 135.52 UYU | 26 min |
| Germany | $3.44 | 3.04 EUR | 9 min |
| Sweden | $3.72 | 36.55 SEK | 11 min |
What else costs what in Uruguay
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $8.76 | 339 UYU | 69 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $1.46 | 58.68 UYU | 11 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $25.80 | 1,034.7 UYU | 3.4 h |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $5.21 | 210 UYU | 41 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $0.99 | 39.79 UYU | 8 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $12.09 | 486.75 UYU | 1.6 h |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $0.28 | — | 2 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for healthy diet in every country or everything priced in Uruguay.