Pricele #110: Eggs (dozen) in South Africa 🇿🇦
The puzzle for 18 October 2026 asked what a dozen eggs costs in South Africa. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
Eggs (dozen) · South Africa
$2.50
41.38 ZAR
About 33 minutes of the average local wage buys a dozen eggs.
Cheaper than 71% of the 32 countries in the game.
Source: Numbeo (crowd-sourced), retrieved 2026-08.
About eggs
Eggs are the most volatile item in the game. Avian influenza outbreaks can double a country's egg price within a few months and pull it back down just as fast, so an egg price is as much a snapshot of this year's flock health as it is of local cost of living.
Where South Africa sits
Of the 32 countries priced for eggs, South Africa ranks #23 from the top at $2.50, 28% below the median of $3.46.
South Africa has low prices in dollar terms but the widest gap in the game between price and affordability: measured in work time at the average wage, its groceries cost far more than the dollar figures suggest. Fuel is regulated and adjusted monthly by the government. VAT is 15% with a defined basket of basic foods zero-rated, a list that is explicitly a poverty measure and has been publicly debated and extended over the years. South Africa is the strongest argument in this dataset for not reading dollar prices as a cost of living: on the dollar column it looks affordable, and on the work-time column it is the hardest country in the table.
| Nearby on the eggs table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turkey | $2.13 | 101.28 TRY | 32 min |
| Brazil | $2.27 | 11.5 BRL | 30 min |
| South Africa | $2.50 | 41.38 ZAR | 33 min |
| Saudi Arabia | $2.57 | 9.64 SAR | 13 min |
| Mexico | $2.62 | 45.43 MXN | 39 min |
What else costs what in South Africa
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $3.36 | 54.9 ZAR | 45 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $0.81 | 15 ZAR | 11 min |
| Cappuccino | $2.31 | 38.24 ZAR | 31 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.20 | 19.86 ZAR | 16 min |
| Apples (1 kg) | $1.80 | 29.79 ZAR | 24 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $1.42 | 23.5 ZAR | 19 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $1.78 | 28.89 ZAR | 24 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $27.80 | 452.4 ZAR | 6.2 h |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $2.62 | 47.7 ZAR | 35 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $0.54 | 9.9 ZAR | 7 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $9.32 | 170 ZAR | 2.1 h |
| Vape e-liquid (1 ml) | $1.74 | 31.66 ZAR | 23 min |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $1.81 | — | 24 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $1.74 | 31.14 ZAR | 23 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for eggs in every country or everything priced in South Africa.