Iceland

Iceland's egg prices directly reflect the costs imposed by the country's geography. A market of under four hundred thousand people, an island located a thousand kilometres from its nearest neighbour, and a climate in which every kilogram of chicken feed must be imported — mostly by sea — all add costs to each egg before it reaches a shelf in Reykjavík.

Production is correspondingly small and concentrated: a handful of farms supply essentially the entire country, and there is little import competition to restrain prices, since fresh eggs do not travel well and import protections for agriculture are significant. The result is a price that regularly ranks near the top of this index, alongside Switzerland and Norway.

Iceland has no statutory minimum wage — wage floors are instead set by near-universal collective agreements — so the purchasing-power widget on this page does not display a work-minutes figure for the country. Icelandic wages are high by any standard, which moderates the burden on households. The figure reflects prices observed daily at Krónan, one of Iceland's main grocery chains.