Switzerland Is Still The Most Expensive Place In The World To Eat Out

The $20 that buys one inexpensive restaurant meal in the U.S. buys about three in Japan, nine in India, and 12 in Bangladesh.

In eight European countries, led by Switzerland, it would not cover even one.

All 98 prices come from Numbeo, accessed on August 24, 2026.

Numbeo’s prices are crowdsourced from users reporting what they paid locally and converted to U.S. dollars at market exchange rates. The prices represent a meal at an inexpensive restaurant by local convention, so the ranking compares the lower-cost end of each country’s restaurant market rather than one identical dish priced 98 times.

The roster moves between pulls: Israel, Luxembourg, and Russia carried no data on the access date and are absent here, though they appear in other pulls of the same dataset.

Switzerland Is the Most Expensive

At $31.20, Switzerland is a clear outlier, costing nearly a third more than second-place Norway at $23.60.

The table, via Visual Capitalist's Sofie Gilbert, ranks all 98 countries and territories from most to least expensive, including the 38 the graphic leaves out.