Global Food Cost Index: 120 destinations, one menu measure

What the index measures

The Global Food Cost Index compares 120 destinations on the mix of price bands in their indexed menus. It does not report the price of a single meal. Instead, every item is assigned to one of three planning bands: budget (usually under US$8), mid-range (roughly US$8–20) and premium (usually US$20 and up). Across the whole catalogue, 966 of 1,353 items are budget (71%), 356 are mid-range (26%) and 31 are premium (2%).

That global mix is the baseline. A destination is "cheaper" here when a larger share of its menu sits in the budget band, not when its currency is weak or its street food is famous. The distinction matters: a country can have a low average meal price and a high share of premium restaurants in its indexed menu, or the reverse.

The destinations with the highest budget share

Among destinations with at least eight indexed items, Vietnam and North Macedonia put every item in the budget band. Singapore (92%), Cuba (91%), Malaysia (91%), Nepal (91%) and Belarus (90%) follow. The threshold matters: a destination with five items can hit 100% by accident, so we exclude menus smaller than eight entries from the ranking and show every destination in the table below.

Budget share among destinations with at least eight indexed items; the item count is shown in brackets.

Where the premium items sit

Only 27 destinations have a premium-tagged item. Switzerland (3), France (2) and Spain (2) carry more than one; the rest have a single premium entry. Premium items are not evenly distributed by region: they cluster in Western and Southern Europe, plus a handful of destinations where one high-end dish anchors the index.

The lowest budget shares

Read this table as the other end of the same measure. Switzerland has the lowest budget share at 30%, followed by Belgium (38%), Japan (40%), Austria (40%) and Denmark (42%). A low share does not mean every meal is expensive; it means the indexed menu leans toward mid-range and premium entries.

The regional view

Southeast Asia has the highest regional budget share at 83%, and Western Europe the lowest at 52%. The spread is about 31 percentage points, which is narrower than the country-level spread. Regional averages hide the outliers that make a trip cheap or expensive.

Dishes, bakery, coffee and drinks

Price bands behave differently by category. Bakery items and other drinks are the most budget-heavy, at 93% and 94% in the budget band, because they are mostly counter purchases. Coffee has the lowest budget share at 53%: 110 of its 240 entries are mid-range, which reflects sit-down cafe service. Every premium item in the index is a dish (28 of them), so a destination with a cheap bakery counter can still look expensive if its restaurant menu carries the premium entries.

A budget traveller's shortlist

If your priority is cheap eating, start with the destinations where the budget band dominates: Vietnam food guide, North Macedonia food guide, Singapore food guide, Cuba food guide, Malaysia food guide, Nepal food guide, Belarus food guide and Mauritius food guide. Then check the country guide's price table, because the budget share says how the menu is distributed, not what a specific meal will cost. For the category-level view, use the street-food capitals table; for dietary planning, start with the vegetarian food map.

Method and limits

• Source. Every figure comes from the 1,353 items in the TasteBridge index: 628 dishes, 240 bakery items, 240 coffees and 245 other drinks across 120 destinations.
• Bands, not prices. Budget means usually under US$8, mid-range roughly US$8–20, premium usually US$20 and up. These are planning estimates in US dollars, not live menu prices or purchasing-power-adjusted figures.
• Share, not average. The index ranks destinations by the proportion of items in each band. It does not calculate a mean meal price, because the underlying data is banded rather than priced.
• Threshold. The headline ranking uses destinations with at least eight indexed items. The full tables include every destination.
• Revision. The dataset is rebuilt from source on every deploy. Last updated 8 November 2026.

Cost index: common questions

More food data

• Vegetarian mapVegetarian food mapWhere vegetarian-tagged dishes are thickest on the menu, ranked by country and region.
• Halal indexHalal food indexWhere halal-tagged dishes cluster, and what the tag does and does not certify.
• Seafood indexSeafood on the menuFish and shellfish dishes ranked by destination, from the Maldives to Portugal.
• Noodle beltThe noodle beltThe destinations that lean on noodles, from Vietnamese pho to Italian pasta.
• Pork and alcoholPork and alcohol mapTwo menu signals that change how you order, and where each one shows up.
• Coffee vocabularyCoffee vocabularyThe words that repeat across 240 coffee entries, from espresso to kopi.

Browse all food statistics