Data for 2020

Cost of a Healthy Diet, 2020

Name: Cost of a Healthy Diet, 2020
Creator: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
License: https://www.fao.org/contact-us/terms/db-terms-of-use/en/

2020, as FAO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

This is what the cheapest healthy diet available in a country costs per person per day, in dollars adjusted for differences in prices between countries. FAO and the World Bank price it from national retail prices and each country's own dietary guidelines, and publish it every year in The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.

Cost of a Healthy Diet, 2020 covers 160 countries. Japan is highest, at 5.80; United Kingdom is lowest, at 1.86. The middle country reads 3.37. Against 2019, 156 values changed (134 up, 22 down), the same countries are covered.

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Cost of a Healthy Diet · Data for 2020

HighestJapan

5.80

LowestUnited Kingdom

1.86

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

160countries
1measure
2020the year it describes
118distinct values2 decimals, as published
Sep 29, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Cost of a Healthy Diet, 2020, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 160 countries · select a heading to sort

Cost of a Healthy Diet, 2020: every country, as published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	5.80
Guyana`GUY`South America	5.41
South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	5.18
Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	5.03
Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	5.01
Suriname`SUR`South America	4.94
Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	4.90
Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	4.86
Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	4.82
Antigua and Barbuda`ATG`Caribbean	4.67
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines`VCT`Caribbean	4.65
Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	4.57
Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	4.55
Grenada`GRD`Caribbean	4.50
Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	4.41
Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	4.37
Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	4.34
Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	4.22
Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	4.19
Bahamas`BHS`Caribbean	4.19
Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	4.13
Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	4.11
Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	4.05
Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	4.04
Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	4.00
Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	3.97
Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	3.93
Syria`SYR`Western Asia	3.91
Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	3.89
Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	3.88
Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	3.86
Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	3.86
Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	3.84
Saint Kitts and Nevis`KNA`Caribbean	3.81
Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	3.81
Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	3.80
Chile`CHL`South America	3.79
Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	3.79
Bolivia`BOL`South America	3.78
Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	3.78
Honduras`HND`Central America	3.76
Guatemala`GTM`Central America	3.74
Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	3.74
Paraguay`PRY`South America	3.73
Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	3.73
Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	3.70
Brazil`BRA`South America	3.69
Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	3.69
Panama`PAN`Central America	3.65
Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	3.65
Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	3.64
Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	3.61
Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	3.61
Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	3.60
Niger`NER`Western Africa	3.60
Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	3.56
Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	3.55
Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	3.54
Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	3.54
Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	3.53
Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	3.52
Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	3.51
Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	3.51
North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	3.51
Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	3.50
Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	3.49
Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	3.48
Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	3.46
Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	3.46
Uruguay`URY`South America	3.45
DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	3.44
Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	3.43
Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	3.43
Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	3.43
Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	3.43
Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	3.42
Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	3.41
South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	3.41
Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	3.40
Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	3.38
Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	3.35
Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	3.34
Peru`PER`South America	3.34
Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	3.33
Canada`CAN`Northern America	3.33
Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	3.33
Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	3.30
São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	3.29
Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	3.28
Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	3.28
Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	3.24
India`IND`Southern Asia	3.23
Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	3.22
Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	3.21
Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	3.21
Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	3.20
Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	3.18
Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	3.18
Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	3.17
Belize`BLZ`Central America	3.16
China`CHN`Eastern Asia	3.16
Colombia`COL`South America	3.15
Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	3.15
Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	3.15
Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	3.14
Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	3.13
Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	3.10
Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	3.09
Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	3.09
Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	3.09
Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	3.07
Mexico`MEX`Central America	3.07
Mali`MLI`Western Africa	3.04
Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	3.02
Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	3.00
Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	3.00
South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	3.00
Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	3.00
Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	2.98
Germany`DEU`Western Europe	2.97
Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	2.96
Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	2.95
France`FRA`Western Europe	2.94
Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	2.93
Benin`BEN`Western Africa	2.90
Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	2.90
Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	2.90
Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	2.89
Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	2.88
Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	2.87
United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	2.85
Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	2.83
New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	2.83
Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	2.83
Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	2.81
Togo`TGO`Western Africa	2.81
Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	2.80
Ecuador`ECU`South America	2.77
Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	2.75
Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	2.73
Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	2.69
Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	2.64
Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	2.62
Israel`ISR`Western Asia	2.61
Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	2.59
Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	2.57
Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	2.51
Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	2.49
Oman`OMN`Western Asia	2.48
Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	2.47
Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	2.44
Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	2.43
Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	2.43
Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	2.41
Austria`AUT`Western Europe	2.30
Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	2.28
United States`USA`Northern America	2.28
Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	2.22
Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	2.22
United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	1.86

02In 2020

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

Lowest

United Kingdom1.86
Kuwaitshared2.22
Irelandshared2.22
United Statesshared2.28
Belgiumshared2.28

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 3.37. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032019 → 2020

Since 2019

+0 / −0countries joined / left
156values changed, of 160 in both
134 · 22rose · fell
4unchanged

Rose most

Syria2.61 → 3.91+1.30
Lebanon1.88 → 3.15+1.27
Mongolia4.56 → 5.01+0.45
Bhutan4.44 → 4.86+0.42
Dominica4.63 → 5.03+0.40

Fell most

Iran3.35 → 3.15−0.20
Türkiye3.88 → 3.73−0.15
South Sudan3.55 → 3.41−0.14
Panama3.78 → 3.65−0.13
DR Congo3.56 → 3.44−0.12

04Caveats

Read before you use

How values are stored

One year of the 2026 release
Every year in this series comes from FAO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 2020.
118 distinct values among 160
Values are stored exactly as published, to 2 decimals. 4 countries share 3.43. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 160 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
160 rows · 4.3 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download healthy-diet-cost-2020-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
FAO’s own file, on its own site.
Cost_Affordability_Healthy_Diet_(CoAHD)_E_All_Data_(Normalized).zip

What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2020). Cost of a Healthy Diet, 2020 [data set], describing 2020. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/healthy-diet-cost/2020

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