Cross-country price comparisons are easy to distort when market exchange rates are treated as if they captured purchasing power on their own. The World Bank’s Price level index for Households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (indicator PA.NUS.PRVT.PLI) is designed for a different task: comparing the relative price level of household-oriented final consumption across economies. On the common scale used in this dataset, the United States equals 100. Values below 100 indicate a lower aggregate price level than the U.S. reference, while values above 100 indicate a higher one.
The verified table contains the latest non-empty observation for 208 economies. Most are recent: 164 observations are from 2025 and 7 from 2024. But 31 are from 2021 and a few rows are older still. That makes the table a broad latest-value snapshot rather than a perfectly synchronized 2025 ranking. The median across all latest observations is 49.6; among the 2025-only rows, the median is 47.1.
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How to read a price level index
The International Comparison Program defines price level indexes from purchasing power parities and market exchange rates. PPPs provide a way to compare the purchasing power of currencies across economies, while the market exchange rate shows how currencies trade. Relating the two creates a direct index of comparative price levels when every economy is placed on the same reference scale. In this series the U.S. sits at 100, so an economy near 50 has an aggregate household-consumption price level around half the U.S. reference on this index.
The indicator covers households and NPISHs—non-profit institutions serving households—within final consumption expenditure. It is therefore broader than a list of supermarket prices and different from a city-level budget estimate. It also should not be confused with the consumer price index. CPI is mainly a time-series measure of how prices change within an economy, whereas this PLI is intended for spatial comparison across economies.
What the world map can and cannot show
The map joins World Bank country codes to a low-resolution world boundary file. It successfully represents 168 of the 208 source rows, a match rate of about 80.8%. Most unmatched rows are small islands, territories or microstates that are not included as separate polygons in the base geometry. Because several of those places also have high PLI values, the map should be read as a broad geographic overview rather than a complete visual ranking.
At continental scale, higher price levels are common across parts of Northern and Western Europe and in several high-income economies in Oceania. Much lower values are visible across South Asia and a number of lower- and middle-income economies. This broad pattern is consistent with the usefulness of PLIs as relative price measures, but the index should not be reduced to an income ranking. Exchange rates, PPPs and national price structures all influence the result.
The highest latest observations
The four highest latest values in the full dataset are Bermuda at 144.1 (2021), Cayman Islands at 140.1 (2021), Barbados at 131.9 (2021), and Turks and Caicos Islands at 131.7 (2021). Those four observations are from 2021. Restricting the view to 2025 changes the top: Iceland leads at 129.7, followed by Switzerland at 128.2, Israel at 105.9, and Denmark at 104.5.
| Rank | Economy | Observation year | Price level index |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bermuda | 2021 | 144.1 |
| 2 | Cayman Islands | 2021 | 140.1 |
| 3 | Barbados | 2021 | 131.9 |
| 4 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 2021 | 131.7 |
| 5 | Iceland | 2025 | 129.7 |
| 6 | Switzerland | 2025 | 128.2 |
| 7 | New Caledonia | 2021 | 115.1 |
| 8 | Guam | 2021 | 111.2 |
| 9 | Bahamas, The | 2024 | 110.7 |
| 10 | Israel | 2025 | 105.9 |
Across all 208 latest observations, 17 are above the U.S. reference level and one—the United States itself—is exactly 100. The concentration of small islands and territories near the top is also a reminder that the world map alone is not enough for precise ranking. Small geographies can disappear at low map resolution even though their values are valid rows in the source table.
Most economies are well below the top of the scale
The distribution is much more concentrated than the highest values suggest. The first quartile is 36.9, the median is 49.6, and the third quartile is 75.8. There are 107 economies below 50, 47 from 50 to below 75, 36 from 75 to below 100, and 18 at 100 or above. In other words, more than half of the latest observations are below the halfway point of the U.S. reference scale.
The overall mean is 57.8, higher than the median because the upper tail extends above 130 and 140. For a description of the typical economy, the median is therefore more representative than the mean. The 2025-only subset has a median of 47.1 and a mean of 53.4, showing that the older observations included in the full latest-value set shift the distribution somewhat upward.
The lowest observations are not an affordability ranking
At the bottom of the latest-observation table, Egypt is 15.6 (2025), followed by the Syrian Arab Republic at 17.5 (2021), Afghanistan at 19.7 (2024), and Nigeria at 20.9 (2025). These values indicate low aggregate household-consumption price levels relative to the U.S. reference, but they should not automatically be converted into a claim about where life is easiest to afford.
| Rank | Economy | Observation year | Price level index |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Egypt, Arab Rep. | 2025 | 15.6 |
| 2 | Syrian Arab Republic | 2021 | 17.5 |
| 3 | Afghanistan | 2024 | 19.7 |
| 4 | Nigeria | 2025 | 20.9 |
| 5 | Iran, Islamic Rep. | 2025 | 21.2 |
| 6 | Ethiopia | 2025 | 22.6 |
| 7 | India | 2025 | 22.7 |
| 8 | Pakistan | 2025 | 23.4 |
| 9 | Turkmenistan | 2021 | 23.9 |
| 10 | Bhutan | 2025 | 24.2 |
Affordability depends on income as well as prices. A country can have a low PLI and still have severe household budget constraints if earnings are low. The index also does not isolate rent, health care, education, transport or imported goods, and a national average can conceal large differences between major cities and rural areas. For personal cost-of-living decisions, the PLI is useful context rather than a complete household budget.
Why this is not the same as CPI
CPI answers a temporal question: how much has a consumer price basket changed within one economy compared with an earlier period? The household PLI answers a spatial question: how high is one economy’s overall consumption price level relative to another on a common PPP-based scale? A country can have rapid CPI inflation and still remain below the U.S. PLI level, or have a high PLI while experiencing modest inflation in a particular year.
The distinction also matters for search results that use the phrase “cost of living index.” Private cost-of-living measures may focus on cities, rents, user-submitted prices or particular household baskets. The World Bank indicator is a national PPP-based measure for the household and NPISH final-consumption aggregate. Similar labels do not guarantee comparable methodology.
Exchange rates are part of the story
Because a PLI is based on PPP relative to the market exchange rate, currency movements can alter the index even when domestic prices do not move by the same amount. A sharp depreciation can reduce the apparent price level in foreign-currency terms, while an appreciation can push it upward. That is one reason why the PLI should not be interpreted as a pure domestic inflation measure.
This feature is also why PPP-based comparisons add information beyond simple currency conversion. Market exchange rates respond to financial and trade conditions and can be volatile, while PPPs are constructed to compare purchasing power across economies. The resulting PLI captures their relationship. For trend analysis, however, it is better to follow the series over multiple years than to explain a one-year movement with a single cause.
A few familiar economies in context
Several large advanced economies fall below the U.S. reference in their latest observations: the United Kingdom is 92.4, Canada 90.2, Australia 94.8, and Japan 69.0. Korea, Rep. is 61.9 in 2025, while India is 22.7. These values show the scale of relative household-consumption prices, not a ranking of incomes, welfare or living standards.
For a fuller assessment of household conditions, a PLI can be paired with wages, household income, per-capita consumption, housing costs and purchasing-power-adjusted income. That combination helps separate the question “Are prices high?” from the question “Can residents afford those prices?” The two are related but not identical.
Why the observation year must stay visible
The latest-value set contains 164 observations from 2025, 7 from 2024 and 31 from 2021, plus a small number from 2022, 2023, 2013 and 2011. A full 208-row ranking therefore maximizes geographic coverage, but it sacrifices perfect year alignment. For a strict same-year analysis, the 2025-only subset of 164 economies is cleaner.
This is especially relevant at the very top, where several territories use 2021 values while Iceland and Switzerland use 2025 values. It would be misleading to call the combined ranking a 2025 league table. The broad latest-observation table is valuable for coverage, while a single-year subset is better for tightly controlled comparisons.
Source and calculation
The numeric source is World Bank World Development Indicators, PA.NUS.PRVT.PLI. The conceptual explanation of PLIs, PPPs and market exchange rates is documented by the World Bank International Comparison Program. Rankings, quartiles, medians, means and band counts in this article are calculated directly from the 208 latest non-empty observations. Missing values are not replaced with zero.
The world map is an original visualization built by joining source economy codes to a low-resolution Natural Earth boundary layer. It matches 168/208 source rows. Missing base-map geometries—mainly small islands and territories—are treated as geometry unavailable, not as zero-valued countries. The ranking tables remain the complete reference for the source values.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an index of 50 mean every product costs exactly half as much as in the United States?
No. It means the aggregate household and NPISH final-consumption price level is around 50 on a scale where the United States is 100. Individual goods and services can differ substantially.
Is this the same as the Consumer Price Index?
No. CPI mainly tracks price change through time within an economy. This PLI uses PPP and market exchange rates to compare price levels across economies.
Why are some observations older than 2025?
The dataset uses each economy's latest non-empty World Bank observation. 164 of the 208 rows are from 2025; the rest use the latest available earlier year.
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