A few weeks ago I did a post requesting inputs for a Hive PPP Index. The objective is to look at price parity for the same basket of goods consisting of 12 items, from different countries. I received 18 responses (including my own) from North and South America, Europe and Africa. Unfortunately I didn't get any input from Asia. I was hoping to get more data points, but 18 is a respectable number and I'm pleased with the spread of countries.
I have converted all the prices to USD, and the basket of goods ranges from $22.88 in Cuba to $127.38 in America.
At the top of the index at $127 is Washington state in America where @denmarkguy says "Making ends meet around here is always quite a challenge...". Texas @greensandpinks is $95, still pretty high, followed closely by the Netherlands in Europe. The average price from @karinxxl and @momogrow is $83. The rest of Europe - Portugal @xrayman, Spain @mipiano , Serbia @duskobgd , Czech @godfish, Slovenia @wnfdiary, Turkey @bemier and Greece @knowhow92 are all roughly the same, ranging from $53.87 to $66.48. At just $70, UK is slightly more expensive than the rest of Europe. There's around 20% price difference between Durban @lizelle and Cape Town @fermentedphil in South Africa, we'll take a look to see what drives that in a minute.
It was good to have a data point in Nigeria thanks to @fredaig. Likewise to @mdrguez and @brunettedev for your input for Cuba. Your country may be the cheapest of all, but I know it doesn't mean you are necssary living your life in Cuba because of the harsh economic conditions. Also thanks to @ladyaryastark from Paraguay, and country that doesn't appear on my radar much and I think probably not well represented on Hive.
5Gb mobile plan
The first item on my Hive PPP Index is a mobile phone plan. The mobile connection is essential for us to stay active on Hive. I asked for 5gb plan because I know some people may not have internet connection at home and the chain consumes a lot of data. Based on the comments to my original post, this is quite expensive in north America, both USA and Canada, but what surprised me was that it is also expensive in Paraguay. It is 149,000 PYG/USD18.7, and is one third of the total basket cost for Paraguay. Spain is surprisingly very cheap at $3.30, even cheaper than Turkey and Nigeria. Or maybe @mipiano is very savvy at looking for a good deal. There's a big difference between mobile prices in Cape Town and Durban in South Africa, and this is one of the biggest driver to the overall basket price between the two locations.
1 litre of petrol/gas
Next is transport. The price of petrol is made up of many components. Crude oil is a global commodity and will be the same for every country. What drives the final pump price includes things like duty and taxes, distribution and logistic costs, profit and exchange rate etc. For example in the UK, about two thirds of our petrol prices are fuel duty and our 20% VAT (more commonly known as GST in other countries). USA is known to have cheap gas prices and is confirmed by this index when compared to most of other countries. Gas is the only item where USA is generally cheaper than everyone else.
Basic food necessities
The next category is a basket of 5 basic food products - pasta, egg, potato, flour and mince meat. I've done a total for these items. Although we all have different diets and purchasing habits, I thought it would be a good idea to get a very rough idea of how much our food bill amounts to.
The cheapest for this basket of good is Nigeria, it cost $7.2 and the most expensive is Washington state in America, it cost $32.57. All the other countries cost just under $10 to $20. Let's take a look the individual items.
500g pasta
With pasta being a relatively low cost item, there isn't too much price variation between most countries. The outlier is Washington state in America, and is about double the price to everyone else, including Texas. I noticed when @denmarkguy sent his prices through, his pasta is Barilla, a good pasta brand from Italy, so maybe everyone else checked the price of a basic brand. Brand and quality can make a lot of difference to price, we have to bear that in mind.
6 eggs
Likewise there can be a big variation on egg prices depending on whether you buy caged eggs, organic eggs, golden yolks (they taste a lot nicer) and also the size of the eggs. Again going to America, as if things aren't expensive enough, the recent bird flu outbreak has made things worse, driving up prices. Most of Europe are around the same price, with Slovenia being a bit more expensive. Eggs in Africa are cheap, as is in Parguay. Good for these countries because egg are healthy to eat and very versatile ingredient.
1 kg of flour
I notice during Covid, the price of flour went up a lot in UK because everyone was baking at home during lockdown. Since then, the price of flour has remained high for us in UK. That's unfortunately, because for most other countries they're still very affordable. Greece and Portugal are the exceptions here.
1 kg of mince meat
We have reached a point of pretty much not eating beef, anymore". Contrast this with Texas which has a strong cattle economy, maybe that helps to push down the cost of beef. The price of 1kg mince meat is relatively expensive in both Greece and Turkey, even more expensive than the rest of Europe, and 3 to 4 times more expensive than Czech.Some very interesting data here. No surprises for who's at top here, @denmarkguy states "
1 kg of potato
Now there is none in Cuba and if it appears that must be its approximate priceFirst of all, there is no input for Havana because @mdrguez said "" and her price was USD4. This seems very expensive, especially when compared to @brunettedev's 140 CUP/$0.44 so I made a decision to exclude the $4 from the exercise so it wouldn't distort the index.
It's good to see that, despite the high inflation in Turkey, potatoes are still very affordable. Potatoes are expensive in Spain, but @mipiano previously said they can be a lot cheaper at the markets. Please note, in my initial post, I asked for prices where you would normally buy them and not the cheapest, so this is a good reflection of your cost of living.
The following items are more of lifestyle luxuries
1 can of Coca Cola
There is quite a big variation here, and that could be down to how I asked the question - not very specific. For example @duskobgd's can of coke is from a bar/restaurant, that's explains why it's quite expensive. My can in UK is from a corner store, single cans are always quite expensive. And I'm guessing maybe some took a pack of 6 cans and divided by 6 to get a per can price. We're not doing a formal research here, so the variation is fine.
Cup of latte
I always use this as a benchmark of how expensive a country is when I travel, but again there will be differences on whether you go to Starbucks or a local small cafe. In fact back in 2013, the Wall Street Journal created the Latte Index. It's similar to the Big Mac index, and compared the price of a Grande Latte across countries. For this index the cut off point seems to be around $3.50 with USA, UK, Czech and the Netherlands being more expensive than the rest. I didn't get a price from @fredaig for Nigeria as she wasn't familiar with this.
A night out to the movies followed by a pizza dinner can work out quite expensive nowadays. Let's see how much it would cost you in different countries.
Pizza from a restaurant
Again, we have a cutoff roughly above and below $10. For Texas @greensandpinks said their last sit down pizza place closed a year ago, this is a pickup/delivery price, hence half the price of Washington. In fact, in America, once you add on 15%-20% tips the $19.50 will become even more expensive. There's quite a price difference between the two Cuban prices, again I'm guessing that's down to the different type of restaurants. Some places can charge you much for just because they have fancy decor or nice ambience. Turkey is the second lowest out of all countries.
Cinema ticket for blockbuster movie
It's unfortunate that cinema tickets are still so expensive nowadays. If you go with a friend that's at least $10 to $35, plus a pizza afterwards, it doesn't work out as a cheap night out. No wonder so many cinemas are closing down now, at least in the UK. The exception is Cuba, it costs practically nothing to watch a movie, but don't forget we're just look at the product price here and have ignored the wages.
Pack of 10 can beer
And finally a pack of 10 can beer. In hindsight, I should have asked for the price of a 6 pack, that seems to be the norm. I don't know why my supermarket is selling beers in packs of 10. Anyway, not a massive variation here, other than the American state that I won't mention again 😄. Turkey is the second highest, @bemier says prices have doubled since last year. In Europe, Czech beer is cheap but according to @godfish these beer "is hardly drinkable" and as a Czech beer drinking he should know!!!!
Conclusion
As I mentioned in my original post, this exercise only looks at a snapshot of things. It does not look at income, and other cost of living such as housing, medical etc. For example, in Cuba, the average monthly salary is $7, but a 5 Gb mobile plan is $1.60 and a kg of mince meat is $4.60.
Also, it does not look at exchange rate or inflation. It could be that some of the data I received 3 weeks ago is already out of date. In Turkey, inflation is 40% and @bemier doesn't believe this is the true figure. I have been looking at Turkish lira exchange rates recently as I was supposed to go there tomorrow (had to cancel my trip now) and the exchange rate has gone up by 5% over 2 weeks. Great for tourists but not good for the locals.
For me, this exercise has given me a better understanding about other parts of the world, and roughly what their cost of living is like. It's not the full story, but it's a start to learn more about others, and that's very important for a global platform like Hive.
Edited : to include Portugal which I missed out earlier on. Also, I will be sharing 5% beneficiary rewards to each of the 17 contributors. This will be done manually after post payout as I can only add 8 users as beneficiaries.
I just looked at your original post as I was surprised you could get 10 beers for £8.50!!! Then I saw it was Carlsberg.
This is fun and I missed it or I would have entered. I used to love comparing things between countries as I am one of those who memorise prices 🤣
Personally I think this is great exercise to get a lot of people involved easily, but like all things creating awareness on Hive isn't the easiest even when I've been around for a while.
Hopefully it will catch on next time
I wonder how thing will be for California, one of the most expensive place to live.
I can make the data for Indonesia, but not now. Everything are spiking at the moment, due to 2 weeks Eid ul-Fitr holidays. The price will be settling down after 8 April, that's when we can get the proper data.
It's unfortunate I didn't get anything from Asia, hopefully next time
It is a surprise to me, as I usually see some South Asians and Southeast Asians regularly giving some comments on your posts.
Well, as you said, it's an unfortune...
You want my view? Contributing and commenting on my last post takes a lot of effort.
Wow, such interesting stats! Thanks for all the effort put into this by you and the others!
And thanks for reblogging this to give it more exposure!
I knew the West coast in the US was much higher in pricing (much of the East, too), but I hadn't realized it was that bad. Many states have increased their minimum wage so high that companies there had to raise their prices accordingly (seems to me it defeats the purpose of a "living wage" when the prices have to go up, too). Also, the states with the higher taxes have higher prices so the businesses can pay those high taxes.
The past few years, Texas has seen a lot of people move from the West coast since we are much more affordable. Our wages may be slightly lower on average, but we have no individual income tax and corporate taxes are very low. This gives us more disposable income than most other states.
It's a viscious circle, you increase the wages but the extra costs will have to be passed onto consumers. The only lever authorities can be pull would be tax and seems like Texas has done a pretty good job at that. I bet many other Americans envy you guys.
Yes, they do, but they don't quite understand why we don't have all the "hand outs" that the high tax states have. We would rather keep our money and use it the way we want than have the government take it in taxes and give us some of it back (you never get it all back).
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Man these prices are pretty wild for a lot of these things. I think Slovenia has the right idea - expensive soda! Lol
I didn’t quite realize how disgusting the prices of things in Washington are lol. No damn way would I ever consider living there for many reasons, the stuff all around being expensive as hell is one additional reason lol
Really cool price map! These are some fun data points, I wonder if you run it again in a few months would you get more responses? That would be cool!
Washington had photos from the supermarkets, it's pretty crazy. With all the tariff wars your great country is throwing around it's the people that will take the hit in the end. So I imagine things will only get worse.
I'd love to do it again in a few months time and hopefully get more inputs.
I missed it. But India being so massive and a huge income disparity and regional disparity you would get different numbers from different parts of the country. I would say my data would be closer to Nigeria with the exception of basic food. Food is a lot cheaper in India, of course it depends on which place you go and eat.
(How the hell is Pizza that expensive in other countries!?)
I can imagine things will be very different across India, probably a world within a world.
It would have been great to get at least one input from India even if it's not representative of the whole country, next time hopefully.
Wow, you really put a lot of time into that :) Thanks for the summary, I'll save it for browsing it later.
It took a while to collate all this, but got there in the end. Thanks for your input
My pleasure :)
Thanks for all the effort you put into this @livinguktaiwan! So interesting to see these results.
As I suspected, we're pretty screwed, living in one of the most expensive parts of the USA. In retrospect, I would like to add — as a bit of extra perspective — that Washington state also has the highest minimum wage in the USA at US $16.66/hr, compared to (for example) Texas, which still follows the Federal minimum wage of US $7.25/hr.
Relatively speaking, though we still can't really afford our lives, mostly thanks to insanely high rents, as a result of insanely high property prices.
Your input to the index was certainly an eye opener to many of us especially outside the USA, and it was also good to have another data point from Texas to show price parity within the country. Thanks so much for providing such a comprehensive insight and all the work you did in the conversions
As for Durban and Cape Town, while most commodities cost less in Cape Town, property prices and rentals are very very high in Cape Town. I was/am still weighing my options for my final home, and would have to look outside the city itself, even then property is very expensive. The attraction in the Western Cape is that it's the only province that's being run correctly as the opposition party is running the city!
That's a story for another day.Gosh @livinguktaiwan, I'm super impressed, collating all this info must have taken some time! But it's always so interesting to see these kind of stats.
It took a while to work out the best way to present the data, hence the delay. In the end I figured it was best to do one chart per item even though it took a little longer, but it was easier for commentary.
You want to take your time to find your perfect final home, and balance all your current and future needs, and social network including your real friends (not that Hive friends are fake, but you know what I mean 😉). Hopefully something suitable comes up
You did that so well!
Thank you @livinguktaiwan, I'm getting closer although I'm seriously thinking of spreading my wings a little further, but, if that works out, I will actually be a little closer to my roots. I do believe the right thing will happen as I'm keeping my options wide open and not rushing into a decision like this.
What an interesting index you have elaborated, thank you for the time you spent and the valuable information you share with us today.
PS: At the time I sent the data there were no potatoes in Havana luckily the harvest began and the price has remained at affordable values 1 kg between 0.60 to 0.70 USD (10% of the basic salary 😉), this is crazy 🤣.
Good week to you, a hug .
I see what you mean now about potatoes! Thanks for the update.
And thank you for your input, it is important to have data all along the spectrum to make it meaningful, it's just unfortunate that Cuba lands on one extreme end.
Have a great week and sending great vibes your way!!
🤗
@livinguktaiwan Is this ongoing project?
That should be another feature implemented run this and make a script to do updates, engage more people, I know Numbeo already exists - but we possibly could fit more and keep data on the blockchain. In reality - we could top that with features like Rewards ( average per country ) - Expenses ratio + some others and create outside traffic that would be great for some people to start with Hive.
Numbeo is great, I used it a lot when I was planning my move from UK to Taiwan many years ago.
Hive has an equally, if not more diverse user base, and we could potentially create a much more meaningful index, imagine Hive having the first and biggest blockchain PPP index. Your last point for onboarding is brilliant, I hadn't even thought of that!
I'm just using excel this time round and it's fine up to a certain scale. Let's see where the community goes with this
I love publications that talk about world prices and this survey is very interesting. I think that in my country we keep similar prices to our neighbour Paraguay in almost everything. My big surprise was to know that a pizza in one of the best pizzerias in the city of Buenos Aires costs $22 (with $1=1100 ARS), more expensive than in the USA or UK. Of course this price is due to the touristy location, but in a common pizzeria you can't find it much cheaper, maybe $14/$15 depending on the place.
I read your country has 80% inflation 😬.
Those pizzas are expensive! Next time I will personally invite you to contribute to the index, we need to track Argentina!
If the UK hasn't sold of all its oil reserves to private companies we might have cheaper petrol here!!
Quite a fascinating jaunt through the countries!
It was interesting for me as well, I did a double take for some of the results and had to go back to check the source data. Found a couple of data entry errors but mostly it was quite unexpected.
I can still remember when petrol was 98p a litre. The good old days!
Those were the good old days. That would save me a fortune!
Interesting, I was noticing going home that while the average wages in Romania are 1100-1200 EURO, the prices are close to the UK ones.
Wow! And based on this index, UK is more expensive than most of Europe.
Yeah, I was saying close to UK, so probably that is the European average, slightly under our prices.
Dang I didn't seen it, I would have partecipated...some prices of the original post are super cheap like 5g month, here it's way expensive, same as gasoline, but pasta is crazy expensive, here 0,25€ the cheapest, even eggs 0,6€
Hopefully next time I can get more inputs to the index, sounds lovely like prices are quite affordable in your country, nice!
Italy here 😅 Back in the days before covid they were much better aswell, now a family needs 2 wages to carry on tough
Excellent analysis 😀
These graphs show how cheap fuel is in the USA, looking at the ratio of fuel prices to everything else.
But unfortunately, Americans do not live only on fuel. I'm sorry that the prices of all the other items are so high...
I am adding an item for a can of Coca Cola, so you have the correct price to compare. Today I bought a pack of 4 x 330ml at the market for $2.8
And another update 😀
Judging by the way my like-minded people in Serbia express their dissatisfaction with the authorities, throwing eggs at their supporters and members of the same authorities, maybe the price of eggs will go up a little in April, especially since Easter is upon us.
Eggs are such a good object for protesting, if only their prices are more affordable it will be perfect! Hope things are still going strong 💪
I hope to do another issue in a few months time, let's see how egg prices do then!
If the situation with the protests is not resolved by the end of the month, after Easter, there is a risk that instead of live eggs (easily breakable), they will be hit in the head with hard-boiled eggs(which we won't eat for Easter) 🤣
Omg this is a fantastic research! We can see how different is the cost of living around the world. This helps to understand each other much better. Thank you for the idea and the data compilation. And many thanks to all the participants. 👏
I'm grateful for so many people's contributions, the power of Hive!
great data. fascinating actually, and probably the sort of thing lots of people wonder about.... i know i do!
It's always good to learn a bit about how other people live, that's why I love going to supermarkets when I travel
This is such an incredible use of the hive community! This should be used everywhere!!
We have such a wide and diverse user base, given the right support there's potential to turn this into something bigger and very useful on the blockchain
I really wasnt aware as well that US got so expensive. Sure salaries are high but cost of living is something else. Same as what you mention of Cuba, damn...how does that work.
Imagine what hive could mean in so many countries when looking at these costs of stuff.
It's these sort of things where we learn a lot about each other. And you think is being at the bottom of the index really a lot worse than the top in non monetary sense?
You guys top the leaderboard in Europe which wasn't a big surprise for me 😬
Will you keep doing this? I can ship in with data from sweden if so going forward 🇸🇪
I think there's a lot of value to do this again in a few months time especially if I get more inputs. Sweden would be a very good data point, the Nordics is known to be expensive and it would be good to see where that lands
I will keep a lookout then you make another post about this. Followed you so hopefully I dont miss it :)
This is a really good post. Maybe you can do it again in six months, and then we'll see the real inflation :)
Absolutely, that's the plan and hopefully get more data points
Thanks for doing this great work, it's really interesting to know a little about other countries and compare with our own reality!
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And thank you for putting Paraguay on the index, I've learnt a lot about your country
Cool that is great! I do too learn a lot about many countries, and hopefully the next edition would have more countries inputs 😊
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And here i am thinking the UK is the most expensive it seems US is extremely expensive than what I though , Am not surprised Cuba beat us to it, ive heard alot of things about that country. Nice work really appreciate the effort
Great work from you for putting Nigeria on the Index. I see inflation in your country is also pretty high, though not as high some others, but high nevertheless, it must be quite difficult for you all. Hope it won't worsen
With the inflation we always survive, its all over the world something the leaders should meet up and have a look at but yet they never did cause it never affects them.
It's like you compiled cost of living stats of different places in the world hehe. What a fantastic effort you made. That's one of the task I did on my previous freelancing gig.
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Not quite cost of living, because it just looks at living expenses, but there is potential to widen the scope, but that will take a lot of work. How are you doing? Still working out your next steps?
Kind've messy path I am in, still trying to recover, lol.
This was a lot of work to put together 👏👏
We indeed found a good price, this is what we (the three of us) have, although my son always run out of his 5Gb, it never lasts for him the whole month 😂
Móvil 5 Gb - 3 euros:
There are more expensive options too, of course.
And the potatoes...I took this photo the other day in the supermarket
But I bought them again on the local market, for much more affordable price 😊
5Gb isn't a lot for youngster when they watch a lot of video's, it goes in a flash.
Shop at the local markets in future!!!
That's the way it will be 😉
Do you have the local market at your place now? You mentioned you will have it too. 🤞
damn poor dutch!
Yeah, I realised they were relatively expensive when I was on holiday the other year
not been for a while but sounds tricky although what am I say our pizza is pricey...
That's why never have pizza when I go out 🍕
India should have made to the list.
Sadly I can't force anyone to comment
Well next time, call me out, we have so many indians, and India is probably going to be the best place to market hive.
Sure will do👌
Prices have no real limits or regulations, and it's our economy, ordinary citizens, who constantly suffer from this.In #Cuba, inflation is truly alarming, as it increases daily.
Thanks for your comment
It is a pleasure for me!
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This is a well structured post, with some very interesting analyses.
Thanks
very interesting post this, nice one!
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Very cool. Great idea.
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The most interesting thing is that no country is left behind when it comes to values for Drinking Beer LMAO
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Doesn't it surprise you that, even when there are so many Venezuelans in Hive, none of them participated in this survey? What do you think could be the reason for that?
Probably exposure, and the fact that it takes a lot of effort to make a comment on my previous post. You have to be dedicated to do that