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Is the meat in the US too expensive? We checked the prices!

PicodiAugust 29, 2023

Meat, which is a source of protein, fats and vitamins, is an important part of the diet for many people – an average American consumes 128 kg (1 kg equals 2.2 lb) of meat annually[1] or about 10.7 kg monthly. However, isn’t meat in the US too expensive?

We decided to compare the prices of 1 kg of chicken fillet around the continent.

Why chicken?

  1. Poultry is the most commonly eaten meat[2];
  2. Chicken is white meat, which is easier to digest and healthier.

Price of meat in the Americas

Our ranking consists of 18 countries from the Americas. It turns out that the continental average price of 1 kg of chicken fillet is $6.65.

The cheapest chicken meat can be found in Bolivia ($3.34/kg), Paraguay ($3.54/kg) and Argentina ($3.89/kg). On the other hand, citizens of the United States ($12.00/kg), Canada ($11.24/kg) and Uruguay ($10.14/kg), have to pay the highest prices for their poultry.

In the chicken price ranking, the US ranked as the 18th country out of 18 countries included – in July 2023, the average price of 1 kg of chicken was $11.24, over the average.

Comparison of meat prices with wages

In order to make the comparison more fair, we calculated how many kilograms of chicken can be bought with the average wage in each country.

The best relation between meat prices and wages can be found in the US, where the average wage (over $4,600!) can get you 389 kg of chicken breast. Less fits in the Canadian (270 kg) and Puerto Rican (245 kg) average wage.

The average American wage gets you 389 kg of chicken. This is more than in countries such as Canada (270 kg), Bolivia (115 kg) and Argentina (109 kg).

Click to see the entire ranking

No.CountryNumber of kilograms of chicken that can be bought with the average salary
1.United States389 kg
2.Canada270 kg
3.Puerto Rico245 kg
4.Panama117 kg
5.Bolivia115 kg
6.Argentina109 kg
7.Costa Rica109 kg
8.Jamaica106 kg
9.Mexico105 kg
10.Uruguay104 kg
11.Brazil104 kg
12.Chile103 kg
13.Ecuador99 kg
14.Paraguay91 kg
15.Peru83 kg
16.Guatemala79 kg
17.Colombia77 kg
18.Dominican Republic75 kg

Prices in American online supermarkets

  • Chicken fillets in Amazon: $8.99 per 2 lb
  • Chicken fillets in Walmart: $10.44 per 2 lb
  • Chicken fillets in Target: $10.58 per 2 lb
  • Chicken fillets in Kroger: $9.48 per 2 lb
  • Chicken fillets in Safeway: $13.98 per 2 lb

Methodology and sources

Prices of 1 kg of chicken breast, as well as the average wages in different European countries, are from numbeo.com, a platform where hundreds of thousands of users from around the world monitor prices of products and services. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate data from Google Finance for July 2023. Prices in British online supermarkets as of 02.08.2023.

Other sources:

[1] https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=91992#

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/274522/global-per-capita-consumption-of-meat/

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