Global Basic Needs Comparison: Food

Global Basic Needs Comparison: Food

Click here for a zoomable, hi-res version of the chart.

When it comes to our basic needs - and the basic expenditures it takes to meet them - none is more important than food. We decided to kick off our 2018 Global Basic Needs Comparison series by showing how far $100 USD will go to provide for a single person's daily nourishment, measured in days.

The beauty of a visualization is you don't need to read through a report to start picking out insights and seeing trends, but there are a few insight we wanted to call out:

  • The three most expensive cities for groceries in the U.S. are San Francisco, New York City, and Anchorage, Alaska. After New York & San Francisco's Top Top Rankings in our global rent survey we weren't surprised to see SF & NYC at the top of the chart, but it was interesting that Anchorage, which is middle-of-the-road for rental prices, is on par with the two priciest cities for groceries.
  • Otherwise, the North America transportation network apparently does an amazing job at food distribution. Excluding outliers, $100 USD purchased between 7-11 days of food in practically every U.S. and Canadian city. Contrast that to Europe, where 86 Euros purchased as little as 5-6 days in Switzerland to more than a month's worth of food in some Ukranian cities.
  • Grocery prices in Australia and New Zealand behave much more like they do in North America than in Europe. 135 AUD consistently allows you to eat for 8 or 9 days.
  • Excluding Hong Kong, Japan & South Korea, staple groceries in East & South East Asia are relatively inexpensive (13-18 days). Prices drop significantly going into Central Asia & India (23-31 days).

While you're here, take a look at our recently upgraded calculators. Keep checking back, because in addition to more Global Basic Needs articles, we've got a travel cost calculator coming out soon, in the same thoughtful and intuitive format.

Aaron A
Aaron A.