Prices in France 🇫🇷
What 7 everyday items cost in France, shown in US dollars, in EUR, and as roughly how long someone earning the average local wage works to buy one.
France sits in the middle of the eurozone range. Its grocery sector is shaped by decades of price-control law governing what supermarkets may charge relative to what they pay suppliers, which compresses the spread between chains.
What things cost
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $7.05 | 6.08 EUR | 24 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $1.68 | 1.6 EUR | 6 min |
| Cappuccino | $3.95 | 3.43 EUR | 13 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.37 | 1.19 EUR | 5 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $4.35 | 3.78 EUR | 14 min |
| Apples (1 kg) | $3.19 | 2.77 EUR | 11 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $2.12 | 1.84 EUR | 7 min |
Local-currency figures are converted from US dollars at recent exchange rates, except the Big Mac, which is published in local currency by The Economist and converted the other way. Work time divides the dollar price by an estimated average hourly wage — the roughest number on this page. See methodology.
How France compares
Relative to the rest of the game, France is most expensive for gasoline, where it ranks 5th out of 32 countries at $2.12 — against a global median of $1.38.
It is relatively cheapest for milk at $1.37, which is 20th of 32 — only 12 countries in the game are cheaper.
Measured against local earnings rather than dollars, the item that takes the longest to afford here is big mac, at roughly 24 minutes of the average wage. Dollar prices and work-time prices often rank countries very differently — that gap is usually the more interesting number.
Play a puzzle
France comes up in the daily puzzle roughly once every 33 days, paired with a different item each time. Play today's puzzle or browse the archive of past rounds.