Prices in Sweden 🇸🇪
What 7 everyday items cost in Sweden, shown in US dollars, in SEK, and as roughly how long someone earning the average local wage works to buy one.
Sweden has high fuel taxes and high wages, a combination that puts it near the top of the table in dollar terms and much nearer the middle once measured in work time. Groceries are cheaper than in Norway, since Sweden's agricultural protection is lighter.
What things cost
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $7.26 | 67 SEK | 21 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $1.76 | 18.9 SEK | 5 min |
| Cappuccino | $4.86 | 46.34 SEK | 14 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.71 | 16.3 SEK | 5 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $4.37 | 41.67 SEK | 12 min |
| Apples (1 kg) | $3.23 | 30.8 SEK | 9 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $1.88 | 17.92 SEK | 5 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 Sweden compares
Relative to the rest of the game, Sweden is most expensive for big mac, where it ranks 3rd out of 33 countries at $7.26 — against a global median of $5.69.
It is relatively cheapest for milk at $1.71, which is 13th of 32 — only 19 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 21 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
Sweden 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.