Petrol Index 2023: how many litres of petrol can you buy for an average wage?

Picodi.com analysts examined the dynamics of petrol price change in the United Kingdom and around the world in the first half of the year and calculated how many litres of petrol an average Brit earning an average wage can afford.

Petrol prices have stabilised

In the first six months of 2023, the prices of petrol in our region remained stable. In most European countries, the petrol price in June differed from the price in January by less than 5%. Only in Turkey and Slovenia petrol became noticeably more expensive – 16% and 10% respectively. In Ukraine and Hungary petrol was cheaper than in January – by 11% and 9% respectively.

In the United Kingdom the average petrol price in June 2023 was £1.43, 7p cheaper than in January (£1.50).

The petrol prices remained unchanged only in Malta, where the local government decided to freeze the prices of fuel and electricity.

Petrol Index 2023

As usual, the lowest petrol prices can be found in Eastern Europe – in Belarus (€0.86/litre), Russia (€0.58/litre) and Kazakhstan (€0.45/litre). On the other hand, the highest petrol prices have to be paid by drivers from Iceland (€2.08/litre), Norway (€1.94/litre) and Denmark (€1.93/litre). In the UK, petrol costs €1.67/litre, 16 cents more than the continental average.

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, the most petrol can be bought by the citizens of high-wage countries – the Swiss (3,025 litres), Luxembourgers (2,413 litres) and Danes (2,033 litres).

According to the newest data presented by ONS, the average wage in the UK is £603 gross weekly (£2,112 net monthly). This means that an average Brit can buy 1477 litres of petrol (11^th out of 43 countries). Last year, in the same period, the average wage could buy 1123 litres (354 litres less).

This is what the petrol index in the UK looked like in the last 5 years:

• 2019 – 1,440 litres;
• 2020 – 1,537 litres;
• 2021 – 1,512 litres;
• 2022 – 1,123 litres;
• 2023 – 1,477 llitres.

In search of a driver’s paradise…

Compared to last year, the three leaders have not changed: Algeria (€0.31/litre), Kuwait (€0.32/litre) and Iran (€0.33/litre) are still the cheapest countries in the world. Hong Kong continues to be the most expensive country with a litre of petrol costing €2.76.

(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 petrol 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 Petrol Index looks the worst in these countries:

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

Methodology

Petrol Index is an annual ranking of the relation between petrol 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 petrol prices in 104 countries in the first half of 2023 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 calculate the ‘Petrol Index’, we divided the average net wage (obtained through local wage calculators) by an average price of a litre of petrol 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

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