Gasoline Index 2023: how many litres of gasoline can you buy for an average wage?

Picodi.com analysts examined the dynamics of gasoline price change in Canada and around the world in the first half of the year and calculated how many litres of gasoline an average Canadian earning an average wage can afford.

Gasoline prices have stabilized

In the first six months of 2023, the prices of gasoline in our region remained stable. In most countries, the gasoline price in June differed from the price in January by less than 10%. Only in Argentina and Colombia gasoline became noticeably more expensive – 30% and 22% respectively. In Paraguay and Peru gasoline was cheaper than in January by 10% in both countries.

In Canada, the average gasoline price in June 2023 was C$1.83, 14 cents more than in January (C$1.69).

The gasoline prices remained unchanged in Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, and Nicaragua, where the local governments decided to freeze the prices of fuel.

Gasoline Index 2023

The lowest gasoline prices can be found in South America – in Colombia ($0.78/litre), Ecuador ($0.63/litre), and Bolivia ($0.54/litre). On the other hand, the highest gasoline prices have to be paid by drivers from Uruguay ($1.83/litre), Chile ($1.58/litre), and Dominican Republic ($1.40/litre). In Canada, gasoline costs $1.37/litre, 30 cents cheaper than the continental average.

We also checked the relation between gasoline prices and local average wages.

(click the arrows to see data from the remaining 20 countries)

With the average wage, the most gasoline can be bought by the citizens of high-wage countries – Americans (4,172 litres), Canadians (2,170 litres), and Puerto Ricans (1,696 litres).

According to the newest data presented by StatCan, the average wage in Canada is C$1,194.10 gross weekly (C$3,962 net monthly). This means that an average Canadian can buy 2,170 litres of gasoline (2^nd out of 21 countries). Last year, in the same period, the average wage could buy only 2,170 litres (553 litres less).

This is what the gasoline index in Canada looked like in the last 5 years:

• 2019 – 2,511 litres;
• 2020 – 3,179 litres;
• 2021 – 2,616 litres;
• 2022 – 1,617 litres;
• 2023 – 2,170 litres.

In search of a driver’s paradise…

Compared to last year, the three leaders have not changed: Algeria ($0.34/litre), Kuwait ($0.34/litre) and Iran ($0.35/litre) are still the cheapest countries in the world. Hong Kong continues to be the most expensive country with a litre of gasoline costing $2.99.

(hover over the country to see the information)

In the global ranking of purchasing power, the podium belongs to the Gulf countries: with the average wage the most gasoline can be bought in Kuwait (7,222 litres), Qatar (6,839 litres), and the United Arab Emirates (4,611 litres).

On the other hand, the Gasoline Index looks the worst in these countries:

• Pakistan – 166 litres for the average wage;
• Sri Lanka – 157 litres;
• Cuba – 27 litres.

Methodology

Gasoline Index is an annual ranking of the relation between gasoline prices and salaries conducted by Picodi.com since 2019.

In this study, we used the latest average wage data published by national statistics offices or relevant ministries. In countries where such data is not published, we used statistics from Numbeo.

The average gasoline prices in 104 countries in the first half of 2023 were taken from GlobalGasolinePrices.com and other local sources. The difference between prices in June and January was calculated in local currencies. In order to calculate the “Gasoline Index”, we divided the average net wage (obtained through local wage calculators) by an average price of a litre of gasoline in June. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate data from Google Finance for June 2023.

All the prices, along with the list of sources can be found here.

Public Use

Would you like to share information about gasoline prices and wage purchasing power in Canada and worldwide with your readers? You can freely use the data and infographics presented in this report both for commercial and non-commercial use, as long as you state who the author of the research is (Picodi.com), with a link to this subpage. To copy the code of the infographic, click the icon in the upper right corner of it. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at: research@picodi.com.