Coffee Index of the World by ZRHuszar

COFFEE INDEX FOR THE WORLD – A NEW COST OF LIVING MEASURE BY ZRHUSZAR

Over the years, I traveled across over 50 countries and hundreds of cities and I was always looking for the next coffee shop. In most cities nowadays you can find a Starbucks or Costa. These companies have great global presence and they can be easily recognized (although they may not provide my desired Cup of Joe). They provide a “standard cup of coffee” across all countries, which allows me to use their coffee a standard measure. Interestingly the costs of coffee in these shops do not varies much across countries despite the strikingly different economic conditions across countries. Thus, it made me think maybe I can create a “Coffee index” to represent the differences in living standards and economic conditions in an intuitive way.

My Coffee Index simply shows the number of cups of coffee an average person can afford (based on the average monthly income) in a specific country. The index just confirms our expectations by revealing the rich countries (Norway, Australia, and Qatar) and the poor countries (Vietnam, India and the Philippines). However, it also shows the major concern that even in Europe there are countries with the same level of living standards as in developing Asia. I hope these graphs can be useful for education and for anybody interested in understanding the world today. (for more information go to my main blog page: http://zrhuszar.com/blog-zrh/)