A day's healthy diet prices by country
A day's healthy diet (one person, one day) costs from $0.92 in Pakistan to $5.52 in Japan, across 49 countries priced in US dollars and in local currency.
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.
The numbers
| Country | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | $0.92 | 257.39 PKR | 1.8 h |
| Tanzania | $0.92 | 2,382.19 TZS | 51 min |
| India | $0.93 | 81.4 INR | 22 min |
| Egypt | $0.95 | 46.77 EGP | 32 min |
| Nigeria | $1.00 | 1,512.6 NGN | 2.7 h |
| Bangladesh | $1.32 | 160.36 BDT | 2.1 h |
| Vietnam | $1.37 | 33,090.91 VND | 29 min |
| Malaysia | $1.48 | 6.32 MYR | 23 min |
| Saudi Arabia | $1.53 | 5.75 SAR | 8 min |
| Indonesia | $1.57 | 25,800.17 IDR | 43 min |
| Philippines | $1.60 | 92.07 PHP | 48 min |
| South Africa | $1.74 | 31.14 ZAR | 23 min |
| China | $1.75 | 12.6 CNY | 19 min |
| Thailand | $1.88 | 61.75 THB | 32 min |
| Turkey | $1.91 | 75.44 TRY | 29 min |
| Colombia | $1.96 | 7,952.04 COP | 44 min |
| Ghana | $1.98 | 24.81 GHS | 1.6 h |
| Romania | $2.02 | 9.04 RON | 15 min |
| United Arab Emirates | hidden, in play right now | ||
| Brazil | $2.26 | 12.61 BRL | 30 min |
| Peru | $2.40 | 8.57 PEN | 44 min |
| Poland | $2.45 | 9.23 PLN | 18 min |
| Argentina | $2.48 | 3,079.92 ARS | 43 min |
| United Kingdom | $2.50 | 1.9 GBP | 8 min |
| Mexico | $2.57 | 49.51 MXN | 39 min |
| Czechia | $2.60 | 56.97 CZK | 14 min |
| Portugal | $2.71 | 2.4 EUR | 18 min |
| Chile | $2.80 | 2,665.92 CLP | 27 min |
| Singapore | $2.83 | 3.7 SGD | 11 min |
| United States | $2.86 | 2.86 USD | 7 min |
| Spain | $2.88 | 2.55 EUR | 14 min |
| Hungary | $2.92 | 1,031.79 HUF | 20 min |
| Netherlands | $3.01 | 2.66 EUR | 9 min |
| Australia | $3.07 | 4.76 AUD | 7 min |
| Ireland | $3.11 | 2.75 EUR | 9 min |
| Italy | $3.18 | 2.81 EUR | 14 min |
| Costa Rica | $3.19 | 1,607.64 CRC | 30 min |
| 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 |
| Israel | $3.82 | 13.2 ILS | 11 min |
| Canada | $3.93 | 5.5 CAD | 11 min |
| Switzerland | $4.19 | 3.48 CHF | 7 min |
| South Korea | $4.49 | 6,389.97 KRW | 19 min |
| Norway | $4.52 | 47.04 NOK | 9 min |
| Lebanon | $4.55 | 407,250.16 LBP | 85 min |
| Japan | $5.52 | 825.63 JPY | 21 min |
Source: The World Bank and FAO's Food Prices for Nutrition database: the cost of the cheapest locally available basket that meets dietary guidelines, per person per day. Published in local currency, converted here at the World Bank's own official exchange rate for the same year. Full methodology.
What the spread shows
The cheapest healthy diet in the game is in Pakistan at $0.92; the most expensive is in Japan at $5.52. That is a 6.0× difference for the same thing, against a median of $2.57 across all 49 countries.
Ranking by earnings instead of dollars rearranges the table. Nigeria has the longest wait, about 2.7 hours of the average local wage, while in United States it is roughly 7 minutes. A country can look cheap in dollars and expensive in hours at the same time, and for most people the hours are what actually matter.