Gasoline Index 2021: who can fill up the most amount of gasoline for the average wage?

This is an archived report. The latest ranking is available here.

Picodi.com analysis team examined the change in gasoline prices in the first half of 2021 compared to the previous year and counted how many litres of gasoline Canadians can buy for the average wage.

Increase of prices on gasoline stations

The first half of 2021 was characterised by the gradual defrosting of the economy and an increase in gasoline prices compared to the first half of 2020. In the Americas, the highest price spikes were noted in Argentina (+49.2%), Panama (+25.6%), and El Salvador (+25.1%).

Canada noted a 23.8% increase in prices, ranking 4^th among American countries. Gasoline prices also increased in countries like the US (+23.5%), Mexico (+13.2%), and Brazil (+23.3%).

The opposite trend was noted only in Ecuador and Colombia, where the average year to year gasoline prices slightly decreased.

Gasoline Index 2021

In the Americas, Venezuelans fill up gasoline the cheapest – in this country, 1 litre of gasoline costs $0.002. Uruguay has the highest prices at $1.35 per 1 litre. In Canada, the average gasoline price in the first half of 2021 was C$1.43 or US$1.16, which means it placed 19^th out of 22 considered countries.

This year, we checked again how many litres of gasoline can be bought for the average wage in various American countries.

(click the arrows to see data from the remaining 21 countries)

For the third year in a row, the undefeated leader of the ranking is the United States with 4,723 litres of gasoline. Canada placed second (2,616 litres), and Puerto Rico completes the podium with 2,264 litres.

In Canada, according to the Statistics Canada latest data, the average gross salary amounts to C$4,875 (C$3,734 net a month). It means that an average Canadian can buy 2,616 litres of gasoline for the average monthly wage (2^nd place). In the previous year, Canadians could buy 3,179 litres of gasoline for the average wage.

Lower in the ranking were countries such as Colombia (539 litres and 9^th place), Mexico (523 litres and 10^th place), or Brazil (436 litres and 14^th place).

Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba took the last three places with 253, 226 and 26 litres respectively.

The world leaders

(hover over the country to see the information)

Among 104 researched countries, the lowest gasoline price was noted in Algeria (US$0.34 per litre), and the highest price – in Hong Kong (US$2.44 per litre).

In the global purchasing power ranking, the Gulf countries are consistently on the podium:

1. Qatar – 6,532 litres;
2. Saudi Arabia – 5,170 litres;
3. Kuwait – 5,158 litres.

Brits can buy 1,512 litres of gasoline for the average wage, Germans – 1,786 litres, Russians – 938, and Chinese – 955 litres.

The worst situation was noted in Cuba. In this country, 26 litres of gasoline can be bought for the average wage (2 litres less than in the previous year). Only a little better were Tajikistan and Zambia, with 188 and 214 litres.

It is also worth looking at Venezuela. This country struggles with an unstable economic situation, yet maintained last year’s limits on gasoline purchases. Each citizen can buy 120 litres of gasoline for about US$0.002 per litre. Once the limit is exceeded, the price of gasoline increases to US$0.50 per litre. According to our calculations, the average wage in this country allows you to buy 230 litres of gasoline (120 litres of subsidised and 110 litres in full price) which is 82 litres more than last year.

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Methodology

Gasoline Index is an annual ranking of gasoline prices to wages ratio, conducted by Picodi since 2019.

This report uses the average net wages according to the latest available data provided by offices for national statistics or relevant ministries. In some countries, where official wage statistics are not available, we used information from Numbeo.

The average prices for the first half of 2021 in 104 countries are based on data from globalgasolineprices.com and other local sources. In order to obtain the number of litres, we divided the average wage by the average price of 1 litre of gasoline. For currency conversion, we used the Google Finance average exchange rate for the last 90 days.

Public Use

Would you like to share the information about gasoline prices and average wages in Canada and around the world with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage. To copy the code of the interactive infographic, click the icon in the upper right corner. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at research@picodi.com.