Meat is the most expensive in Switzerland, may it be beef, chicken, pork, lamb or fish. At the same time, higher income makes this less of a burden, a survey of 52 countries by Caterwings shows. In terms of salaries, meat is the most affordable in Denmark. Despite its relatively low prices, Hungary is ranked somewhere in the middle.
The 2017 Meat Price Index compares meat prices to local minimum wages, or if there is no minimum wage, then to the average salary for a job in a general or unskilled labour. The data was gathered by analysing meat prices in every country’s top cities, which needed to account for at least 25% of the total country’s population. To determine affordability, these prices were cross-referenced with the minimum wage of each country and then calculated into the relative number of hours a person must work to be able to buy each type of meat. The Meat Price Index is divided into five separate categories: beef, chicken, fish (3 types of seafood), pork, and lamb.
The data showed that Switzerland has the highest meat prices, while Ukraine has the lowest. The average price of meat in the former is nearly 1.5x the global average, whereas Ukraine’s average price is merely 48% of the global average. Hungary fared well in this sense, as its average meat price is nearly 37% cheaper than the global average.
The findings which were most interesting however, were that despite low prices of meat in countries such as India, someone on minimum wage must work almost a whole week to buy a piece of meat, while those in Norway would need to work less than one hour on minimum wage to afford the same.
However, the price in dollar terms means almost nothing. The point is how many hours of work it takes you to be able to afford one kilogram of meat.
The tables below show six countries each, three where you need to work on minimum wage the most and three where you need to work the least for one kilogram of meat. To each ranking we have also added Switzerland and Hungary.
Thanks to high earnings, meat is the most affordable in Scandinavian countries, especially in Denmark.
Whereas all types of meat are the most expensive in Switzerland, the Swiss still need to work fewer hours on minimum wage than in Hungary to afford one kilogram of meat.
