Petrol Index 2022: how many litres of petrol can you buy for an average wage?

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

Our analysts at Picodi.com examined the dynamics of petrol price change in Europe and around the world in the first quarter of 2022 and calculated how many litres of petrol one can afford for an average wage in the UK.

Petrol is even twice as expensive

In the first half of 2022, many countries in our region noted record-breaking increases in petrol prices. The anti-leader of this increase is Turkey, where the petrol price increased by 100%.

In June, the average price of a litre of petrol in the UK was £1.84. This price is 26.3% higher than in January, when, on average, a litre of petrol cost £1.46. An even more severe increase in price can be felt by car owners in Spain (+40.8%), Lithuania (+43.9%) and Ukraine (+63.3%).

In Malta, petrol prices were stable throughout the first half of the year. In Russia, the nominal price in roubles did not change. However, due to the artificial increase of the rouble’s value by the government, petrol prices presented in euros increased by 41.5%. Kazakhstan is the only country in Europe (partly), where petrol became slightly cheaper (−0.7%).

Petrol Index 2022

Norwegians, Finns and Danes are currently paying the most for their fuel, paying €2.56/litre, €2.53/litre and €2.48/litre respectively. In the UK, after conversion to euro, the petrol price is one of the highest in Europe – 9^th place out of 43 accounted for countries at €2.14/litre. Low petrol prices can be enjoyed by citizens of Russia (€0.84/litre) and Belarus (€0.68/litre).

This year we also checked the relation between petrol prices and local average wages.

(click the arrows to see data from the remaining 42 countries)

With the average wage, drivers from Switzerland (2,455 litres), Luxembourg (1,943 litres) and Denmark (1,502 litres) can buy the most petrol.

According to the newest data presented by ONS, the average wage in the UK is £604 gross weekly (£2,065.66 net monthly). This means that an average Brit for an average wage can buy 1,123 litres of petrol. Compared to the previous year’s petrol index, the purchasing power of the average British wage in the context of petrol has significantly decreased.

This is what the petrol index in the UK looked like in the last few years:

• 2019 – 1,440 litres
• 2020 – 1,537 litres
• 2021 – 1,512 litres
• 2022 – 1,123 litres

Prices of petrol around the world: prices did not increase everywhere

Having substantial raw material resources saved some countries from the increase in the price of petrol. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar were not affected by the world’s economic situation. The governments of countries such as Columbia, Ecuador and Kazakhstan have decided to either freeze or set the upper limit on petrol prices.

(hover over the country to see the information)

In June of 2022, the lowest price of petrol was noted in Algeria (€0.30/litre), Kuwait (€0.32/litre) and Iran (€0.34/litre). Hong Kong on the other hand stands out as the country with the highest price of petrol per litre (€2.83/litre).

In the global ranking of purchasing power, the podium still belongs to the Gulf countries: Qatar (5,968 litres), Kuwait (5,578 litres) and Saudi Arabia (4,372 litres).

The poorest country in this comparison is Cuba, where the average wage is equal to only 27 litres of petrol.

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Methodology

Petrol Index is an annual ranking of the relation between petrol prices and salaries conducted by Picodi since 2019.

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

The average petrol prices in 102 countries in the first half of 2022 were taken from GlobalPetrolPrices.com and other local sources. The difference between prices in June and January was calculated in local currencies. In order to get the number of litres, we divided the average net wage (obtained through local wage calculators) by an average price of 1 litre of petrol. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate data from Google Finance for June 2022.

Public use

Would you like to share the information about petrol prices and wage purchasing power in the UK 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 the author of this research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at: research@picodi.com.