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What People Eat Around The World
Ever wondered how you rank with the rest of the world in the amount of money you spend on food in a week? I got this email and it has some great pictures along with the amount of cash each family spends in feeding themselves for a week all around the world.
Guess how much money refugees from Darfur spend in a week at Briedjing Camp for food? Scroll down to find out.
From the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio www.menzelphoto.com.
Živio! Halo! Hallo! Bonjour! Ciao! - To everyone from around the world visiting this post.
1. Germany - $500 a week for food
2. North Carolina, USA - $341.98 a week for food
3. Japan - $317.25 a week for food
4. Italy - $260 a week for food
5. Great Britain - $253 a week for food - I wonder if the dog on the table is part of the diet?!?
6. Kuwait - $221.45 a week for food
7. Mexico - $189.09 a week for food
8. California, USA - $160 a week for food - Apparently it’s cheaper to eat on the West Coast of the U.S.A than the East Coast. See North Carolina above.
9. Beijing, China - $155.06 a week for food
10. Poland - $151 a week for food
11. Egypt - $68.53 a week for food
12. Mongolia - $40 a week for food
13. Ecuador - $31.55 a week for food
14. Bhutan - $5 a week for food
15. Breidjing Camp - $1.23 a week for food!!! {Sudanese refugees in Chad}
You can also view the photoset here on Flickr.
*Disclaimer: I am not the owner of these photographs, I simply got them in a forwarded email. No names or origin of photos was attached to the email. Peter Menzel has contacted me and I have attributed him above as instructed by him.
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excellent post, I’ll be blogging about and link to this ^_^
how much do I spend in my household?? $75
wow, that’s amazing. It’s also interesting to note the size of the tables of food/amount of food for the amount each family is paying…in Sudan for example it looks like a bag of barley, rice and peas, a gallon of water and a few limes and nuts…not exactly Round Table or Red Barron Pizza like in some of the other pics.
Take out a lot of that junk food you see and the prices drop fast. I wonder if they thought about that after seeing these photos.
Hello Hyder,
Excellent Post!!!
Perfect for Charity Week for Orphans that my team are promoting.
on JustGiving Dot Com / CharityWeek
Do you mind if I use those pictures?
Those photos are from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats credited to photographer Peter Menzel and author-journalist Faith D’Alusio. It’s an excellent book if you’re interested in this subject. I gave several copies of it as Christmas presents last year.
Thanks Nikchick for the info. I’ll edit the post later on to credit the photographer.
wow that is crazy
damn how people keep taking pictures from this book, and posting them out of context.
Wow, this is really amazing. If I was to have a picture like that, there would be about 75 bags from Wendy’s. That’s really gross.
The difference in cost between #2 (North Carolina) and #8 (California) is probably largely due to the ages of the children. Two teenage boys can eat significantly more than two young children!
I’m a single mom in the US-I spend exactly $71.00 a week on food for three and it buys right around enough for one. Thanks for the reality check-I was feeling sorry for myself till I hit halfway down.
You know what I take from this? More packaged foor = more money. It’s really no secret that if you buy more produce it’ll be cheaper than if you buy Texas Toast and chips. If you hunt or raise your meat it’s cheaper than buying it. I think it would be cool to know what proportion of the food people grew/hunted for each photo.
The teenage boys in NC probably do account for some of the cost difference between the two American families, but also the fact that the CA family didn’t have any fast food on the menu means that they will spend significantly less. The NC family had meals from KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Burger King in front of them, as well as two large delivery or take-out pizzas. That’s probably well over $50 right there, if not more. The homes that spent less featured more fresh, real food: more vegetables and fruit than meat, and what meat they had they intended to cook themselves instead of buying prepared meals. I spend about $100 on food each week for just myself, and while that includes a fair bit of dining out, I enjoy cooking at home as well.
[…] Posted by Becky on 15 Oct 2007 at 12:12 pm | Tagged as: Everyday I’ve seen this article on the net several times and wanted to share it with you, just in case you haven’t seen it. It is very interesting. It’s a photo essay of different families, all over the world and what they eat and pay a week for food. Some of it even amazed me! In the USA, lots of families, even small ones, pay upwards of $200 a week. Ecuador? $31.55 a week. Simply Amazing!! […]
Those sudanes people have it pretty good. They get to eat for cheap!
How come those ******* dont have any hotwings or watermelon?
Edit by author: Please do not use derogatory terms.
I don’t understand how the family from China had 4 people.
Last I checked you are limited to one child there. Did they get a special voucher for extra children? Does that voucher include hotwings or watermelon?
I believe the way it works in China is if a family has one child, school, daycare, and health care are provided for him/her. If the family has another child it is taken away. This is how a Chinese woman explained it to me.
Wow, that Kuwaiti family has a huge kitchen!
The German family is not a true picture of reality, most of the Germans have only 1000$ to live, how can they spend 2000$ only for food?! But may be he is an entrepreneur…so then you can show entrepreneurs from africa, they have the same level of living.
As LL said, more packaging == more cost, same as with more takeouts. Avoid processed and prepared foods, and good eating is possible almost anywhere for very little expense. As wandering Californians, we find some Canadian foods absurdly expensive (maple syrup cheaper than milk!?!) and some Central American foods absurdly inexpensive (eggs cheaper than rice!?!). We hope to get to India soon, where it’s reportedly easy to live on US$3 per day. For thrifty munchers, that’s hard to beat.
‘******’ is such a ugly word. i hate it when people refer to the coloreds as *******.
what i find really interesting is that there are no dirty **** up there - they really know how to stretch a buck.
[…] I don’t know how accurate this is, but this site has photos of families from various locations around the world and their groceries for the week, plus what they paid for them. It’s pretty awesome. […]
Fresh produce also depends on where you’re located and what season it is as far as pricing goes. I’ve spent as much as $30 on fresh produce just to make vegetable soup (I live in Missouri and it was the middle of winter), as opposed to less than five on frozen vegetables which makes the same amount of soup. Yeah, I had just moved away from my parents and learned a lot about grocery shopping that day . . .
Just some perspective on the American diet. Yes it is cheaper to buy meals and make them yourself, but I think fresh produce can be more expensive here. That’s why most Americans buy frozen or canned fruits and vegetables.
Also most Americans buy from supermarkets where fresh produce has to be shipped where they have to keep it fresh (which also probably contributes to the cost especially if it’s out of season) as opposed to, say, the people in Egypt or Ecuador where they were more likely to buy from a farmer or grow it themselves.
Most of the cost for American food is convenience.
I personally spend about $50 a week on groceries for two (sometimes more) people. I also like to buy in bulk and cook extra for leftovers the next day so I don’t have to spend as much on meals. Most of my money goes on frozen goods, especially vegetables. And we probably eat fast food once or twice a week.
I own a daycare in the southeast. I can feed my family and 30 some odd kids under 5 plus 10 other adults (my employees) for less than $300 a week. So, it behooves me to think that a family of 4 needs that much money for food. Take into consideration that I am buying about 13 gallons of milk a week and at $4.00 a gallon, that seriously cuts into that $350. So, again, how does it take that much for 4 people when obviously they don’t need 13 gallons of milk a week? Just something to think about.
Well, it’s a toss up as to the worst dietary habits between UK and California. I think UK takes the cake with those bags of chocs and not much fresh fruit and veg…
It is assumed the researchers of this book have based this study on comparitive wealth per family unit, and of course what dollar value are we using? US I guess. Whilst it is fun to see what others are eating, I’m feeling this comparison is not completely realistic due to variations in dollar value. However I have not read the book, so perhaps I’m being cynical for no reason… I note the Australian family has not been included in this study, and I will add a rural family of 5 including 3 teenagers, will spend AUD $400 per week and there is no takeaway included because it is not available here.
Isn’t it strange how the poorer families further down hve larger smiles on their faces and the more affluent don’t smile at all. It seems the more one has, the more discontent they are. . .
Thank goodness for the cheap groceries in Dearborn, MI. I can easily buy for two each week between $30 and $40. We’ve gotten it down to $18.
Something I gotta wonder is in pictures like the Egypt one and the Bhutan one, are they really feeding *all* those people with that amount of food? It seems like there’s more than one family shown in those pictures.
And I’m amazed at the people who commented about the Sudanese family saying that they must have it good spending so little on food. Seriously, look at how much food is there… they aren’t living it good spending so little on food, they’re feeding 5 people and a baby off of that small amount for an entire week.
More than interesting, this is eye-opening.
Very interesting and eye opening. It’s crazy how different things are across the globe. I’ll keep my eyes open for that book.
Only the Han Chinese are limited to one child. Other ethnic groups in China can have more.
Instead of just posting credit for the photographer, how about actually asking permission to publish his images. They ARE copyrighted, and publishing them without permission is infringment.
That German family is going 30 beers and 4 wines a week? Nice
Barbara,
If you had read the text in the article about the images you would probably not have asked this question.
Also, what makes you think that me and the photographer haven’t already had an exchange about giving credit where credit is due for the photographs.
I am from Italy but I have never seen anyone eating that much bread in a week! Anyhow, very interesting.
I believe you can only have one girl. The other girls are usually taken away. I don’t know of any restrictions about boys.
Who said they get paid 1000$ in Germany? There are managers, secretaries, waiters, cops, teachers, doctors, lawyers, professors… like in all the rest of the world. I agree 500$ per week is a lot, but some workers can afford it. Of course that amount is due to all the alcohol they got.
[…] What People Eat Around The World. […]
it is terrible to see the difference between the first world countries and 3 world countries. it brings home the reality of how fortunate we are
This is amazing to see. The different amounts of money and the different qualities of food are rather astounding. Thank you for sharing.
I hope you are joking about the Sudanese family. If not then maybe you should read a newspaper or watch the news sometime!
well, they have great britain wrong for certain.
i live here …. 221 dollars? Sorry charlie.
that $221 converts at the current rate of exchange to $400, not 200. actually it would be 441 in usa dollars.
also not mentioned ….we haven’t a clue how much state aid in food some of these places get to augment food supply shown here.
i am not saying it’s all bogus but certainly open to questions. for example …Bhutan - $5 a week for food. none of those pictured look to be starving, rates of exchange need to be taken into the picture and i find it hard to believe that the food shown is all there is in that family. i could go on but will end it here simply saying, take another closer look and question.
woops …. had my conversion wrong. thinking in pounds and dollars sometimes gets twisted.
but stand by other comments.
Very Interesting. I wanted to know about this for a long time. Good post.
[…] What People Around The World Eat October 21st, 2007 — pnithya I was wondering what people from other country eat. Us Indians mainly consume rice in forms of Idly, dosa and rice itself. Not all countries grow rice. This site What People eat around the world gave me a good idea regarding people’s food habits. Go through the pictures. Posted in blog. […]
I find it funny that so many of you are focused on stereotypes. It’s pretty pathetic actually. You’re looking at pictures from across the world and all you can see is their skin color and the country they come from. Some of your comments are disgusting.
[…] What People Eat Around The World | Everybody Go To […]
[…] http://www.everybodygoto.com/2007/10/12/what-people-eat-around-the-world/ […]
Like “coloreds” is any better… You both need to get your heads out of your butts and read a newspaper… or maybe go make an african american friend and then tell me what you’d call them.
Great post. It shows that no one on earth should go hungry if we all cared a little, and helped out.
the one child policy ended in ‘99 due to pressure from human rights activists and economic threats from both the USA and France
[…] What People Eat Around The World | Everybody Go To (tags: food world photos eat) […]
[…] Ever Wonder How Much YOU Spend On Food? What people eat around the world might surprise you, along with the price. Just sharing with the rest of the class What People Eat Around The World | Everybody Go To __________________ —–Silence is golden, Duct tape is silver.—– View some of my pictures HERE updated weekly […]
Just FYI, frozen veggies usually are more nutritious and have just as much flavor, if not more, than fresh, so they’re better for you anyway. They’re frozen at the peak of freshness, right when they’re picked, whereas fresh produce is picked and transported, sometimes all the way across the country, or from another country. It might take a week or more for it to get to your grocery store, by which time it’s not really fresh anymore and some of the nutrients and flavor have degraded.
Very interesting and amazing photographs.
The Mexicans go 12 share size cokes a week? No wonder their kids are so fat.
Heart touching post! So this tells that of people from Germany, japan, china, itly, USA .. so on. if donate a little bit from their weekly budget of food it can do a lot of good for Breidjing Camp. So what is UNICEF doing ?
Cheer up Mongoloid Dad!
MOST people in Germany make MORE than the average person in the US…
GOOGLE it.
i apologize for my comments
that dad is not a mongoloid
and mexican kids are not fat
busca lucerito pedo
if i see those families
i think
I NEED TO BUY MORE VEGETABLES
[…] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and do let me know if there is any *anything* you feel is missing! If you’re not sure how to subscribe to my feed, here’s some information that may help. If that doesn’t work, click here to ask me.Found a post with some amazing photographs here. You simply *must* see it. Won’t tell what it is, except that it’s about food! […]
Great post! Linked you from my site. Perhaps I could send you one such photo from India.
Found you thru StumbleUpon btw.
Sid
Sure, be my guest
Amazing! :0 When you see it all laid out that way… it’s quite humbling.
[…] This site has images of the typical food a family four would consume over a week. Check it out cause it’s freaking awesome. […]
[…] I was Stumbling a bit this morning and came across this post - What People Eat Around the World. It shows many families around the world standing around a week’s worth of groceries. What I find so interesting about this post is not necessarily the amount of money families spend, but what they do with the money. For instance, would the family of 4 from North Carolina still spend $341.98 on food each week if pizza, chips, soda and fast food weren’t part of their diet? […]
[…] I found an interesting post as I was surfing the interweb. They took pictures and captions from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. In the post, they show the cost of eating for various families around the world, then show pictures of what that amount buys. […]
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I live in Germany and, honestly, if I filled my cart with everything in that picture I wouldn’t pay much more than 150 Euro (That’s around $219 with today’s rate of exchange). It’s possible that they drink a very expensive wine, but unlikely, as wine here is cheap when compared with U.S. prices. The beer isn’t a factor in expense as beer is about as cheap as water or soda (cheaper, in some cases.) Even if everything they bought is 100% organic I couldn’t imagine it costing more than double my original estimate.
[…] Nov 9th, 2007 by cheaplikeme Earlier this week, Simply Thrifty http://www.simplythrifty.com/what-people-spend-on-food/ linked to this site that looks at what families around the world spend on food per week — with pictures of what they spend their money on. The photos are from Hungry Planet, which is a fantastic book and a sequel to another book about people’s possessions. I recommend both books highly - voyeurism and globalism all in one interesting package! http://www.everybodygoto.com/2007/10/12/what-people-eat-around-the-world/ […]
Lots of stereotypes and actually wrong observations.
The prices for the German family are far too high, also there are much less beer on the table than cited earlier on. And alcohol is indeed very inexpensive there as well.
The $ figure on food is totally irrelevant anyway as you have to compare food prices in relation to income and the average prices of staple food. If there is hardly any cabbage available, but you want fresh cabbage than you would spend a higher percentage of income on cabbage. Also: if you live in NZ you pay around $3-4 for one fresh capsicum. In Oz you will get away with $2/kilo. Income average in NZ is significantly lower than in OZ!
Comparing the nutritious aspect of food and the environmental impact of what one buys would be a far more interesting subject.
Food is NOT about spending little money on it (or even as little as you possibly can) but about quality and environmental consequences!
Excellent post… interesting research work done!
[…] Check out the Everybody to Go blog to see what it looks like for families around the world. […]
Nice Pics, but that’s rubbish. Check our the exact amount the people would have to eat or drink - Germans would drink 6 bottles of wine and app. 12 bottles of beer per week.
Food in Italy is far more expensive than in Germany, just as an example
[…] What People Eat Around The World shows the weekly spread of food that different families consume across the course of the week. It is very interesting and not hard to work out which countries have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, etc. […]
I wish the family size was consistent for better comparison. As others mentioned, two small children in CA don’t eat as much as one adult whereas ONE teenage boy can eat 1.5 the amount as a mother (and the NC family has TWO of them).
I’m in CA, and $150 a week feeds our household (husband, wife, 3 cats, and 1 large dog) without any packaged or take out food. This includes both lunch and dinner at home plus any typical household comsumable items such as laundry supplies, paper goods, shampoo, etc., and we hardly eat out. It is tight at $150, but if we cook everything from scratch, it’s very doable. Without pets, $150/week would be pretty comfortable for two even in S. CA.
[…] What People Eat Around The World | Everybody Go To —————- Listening to: 2Pac - Temptations via FoxyTunes Posted by xntricpundits Filed in Uncategorized Tags: cookbook, culture, facts, food, india, interesting, people, politics, stats, world […]
[…] Missional pointed me towards this stunning pictorial comparison of what families eat during a week and how much it […]
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I’m from Germany. My family spends 300€ A MONTH for food
Those photos and numbers are AMAZING!
wow this is serious stuff. also take in account the number of people to the amount of food available. I mean for instance in Bhutan and Egypt there’s 12-13 people with that little amount of food whereas in Germany 4 people have $500 dollars worth of food. Thats insane and thats the reality of this world..
[…] Outras famílias neste link. […]
THATS SO COOL TO SEE HOW MUCH FOOD YOU CAN GET IN A WEEK FOR THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY. ITS ALSO COOL TO SEE ALL THE TYPES OF FOOD IN ALL THE DIFFRENT PLACES. I REALLY LIKE SEEING ALL THE TYPES OF FOOD AND ALL THE DIFFRENT PLACES I WISH I COULD GO VIST ALL OF THOSE PLACES.I JUST WANT TO SAY ITS REALLY AMAZING TO SEE ALL THAT.
[…] an interesting post about food. It’s a set of pictures of people from various parts of the world and the food […]
This is very interesting and I like it a lot, but where ever you got it from could have been more accurate. All the families have kids of different ages and the number of people in each family differ. But still great
Heh, Interesting stuff, most people would balk at what another culture eats, and vice versa :p
I think food is important, which is why I regularly donate money to the UN to provide food aid.
[…] What People Eat Around The World shows the weekly spread of food that different families consume across the course of the week. It is very interesting and not hard to work out which countries have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, etc. […]
Great pictures and good information. Thanks.
http://www.reversefunnelmentoring.com
[…] Everybody Go To, via PC Notas […]
this is amazing!!! i’m from germany and i don’t spend 500$ a week for food
greetz jo
I’m from England and I spent only $100 a week for food
though i was at first saddened to see such blatant disrespect for the people who worked hard to put that book together, i honestly can’t buy such a book (my dollars have to stretch), and it was fascinating to see how different all these families are in this regard.
the thing that strikes me most is that in the american families, each has one or two vegetables. a week. it’s not enough, guys!
That amazes me how much everyone eats in a given week. A lot of food circulates all round the world. If there is one one thing I enjoy and love it’s food. I love my wife too.
Speaking of stereotypes, why is it only families? I guess a lot of people think it’s not important what you eat if you don’t breed….
Thanks, we are putting together a kids mission awareness kit and those pictures tell a lot more than any words could. Could we use them in our kit? If not we will direct people to this site. Thanks
[…] links to lifestyles, resources and incomes around the world. It is extracted from a book called “Hungry Planet: What The World Eats“ by Peter Menzel and Faith […]
[…] What People Eat Around The World | Everybody Go To Amazing photos. From Niko. (tags: food photos) […]
I beleive that some of the fotos show what peple actually spend on food in some parts of the world. Some of the views may be a bit skewed, seeing as how not most Mexicans can afford to spend close to $200.00 on groceries a week. They however live in Cuernavaca, so maybe it is their vacation home as most people that live near the Capital, in which case it is beleivable. My Asian friend however says B.S, B.S, B.S, she says the Bei Jing one is overly exagerated! Oh well, I loved the photos though, Good Job!
I love to know more about what people and kids around the world eat and i think this book will be of great help (what do you say?)
I always like to know about the day to day food habits of people of various countries do you think this book will be of help.
To the Celtic lady vis.
quote
CelticLady
October 27th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Just FYI, frozen veggies usually are more nutritious and have just as much flavor, if not more, than fresh, so they’re better for you anyway. They’re frozen at the peak of freshness, right when they’re picked,
end quote
Parroting television advertising shows how television has influenced consumers.
I agree with many people that the total number of family members will change, the cost per person is a better indicator.
Overall the pictures show the American lean to fast food and prepackaged plus softdrinks.
The English love their sugar, notice the sugar based cereal at the rear right.
As for the Chinese picture the snapshot is false.
quote
In rural areas, where nearly 80 percent of China’s people live, the food and nutrition problems are primarily related to inadequacies rooted in poverty. According to the 1989 household budget survey, 42 percent of rural households had yearly per caput incomes below 500 yuan (US$95) and 5 percent of the household incomes were below 200 yuan (US$38) (Xian, 1989)
end quote
details here
http://www.fao.org/docrep/U5900t/u5900t0a.htm
The photo montage is interesting but inaccurate.
hey I got these pictures in an email too! except the email I got had less pictures, so this was really interesting.
Jeff: I think that Celtic lady was perhaps using marketing speak, but it is true that frozen vegetables can have the same or even better nutrient content.
http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?id=105360&catId=100286&tid=100008&p=1&title=Fresh+fruit+and+veg
Wow man, that’s a BIG diff between to diff countries, i dont even wanna live in Germany they eat so much it’s disgusting!!! I feel so bad for people in Breidjing Camp
I am from the USA and I spend $120 pr. week on Groceries there are many people here wow live on much less with much less junk food. I would like to see a comparison of people from all economic classes. Interesting to note the differences never the less. Where is this from?
Wow. Imagine on $12 a week!
some people dont even hardly have a home thats sad
the first people have a LOT OF FOOD 
sweet 
[…] this page even shows […]
STERIOTYPES
Fascinating look at what a family eats.
TK Kenyon
[…] | Visita a las favelas de Brasil, Turismo solidario Más info | New York Times (en inglés), What people eat around the world (fotos), Smithsonian Magazine (on “Poorism”) (en inglés) Foto | ABC […]
The most interesting thing one can learn from these pictures is that it puts the lie to the whole argument that terrorism in the Islamic world is because of poverty. The Muslim countries here, (except for the Sudanese, who are themselves being persecuted by Arab Islamist Janjaweed genocidaires) are mostly in the middle and Kuwait is the only country here where the family have servants. It turns out that having Servants, like Bin Laden did as a child, is what truly breeds terrorism. People that work for a living and don’t live on the backs of others also don’t like to murder civilians.
It is interesting that the Europeans are so unhappy. Also the picture of the Italians is statistically incorrect, Italy is a shrinking country demographically and therefore having three kids is an outlier. They should have only 1.5 children in the picture. Also because Europe is now approaching 25% foreign born or descendants of immigrants it seems stereotypical to choose ‘white’ Europeans for the pictures in Germany and Italy and G.B, it would have been more honest had the German picture been a Turkish family or the GB picture been Pakistanis or the italian one been Roma or Albanians.
Wow Seth, so if people have a maid helping out with home duties, and if they are Muslim, they are all terrorists!
What happens if they are Christian, or atheist? Are they still terrorists? Who says the Kuwaiti family is not working for a living, in fact I do not know of any single human being that doesn’t work for a living? Corporations are the ones that live off the “back of the people”, especially those well taken care of CEO’s {who always get their million dollar bonuses and stock options}.
People like you are what’s truly wrong with the world, not people with maids/servants.
The world is shrinking, get used to it. Or get on the first space ship to Mars.
[…] the other day. I think my priorities are askew sometimes. Its just something to think about. What People Eat Around The World | Everybody Go To __________________ 1993 FZ-1FE 138,000 miles, green Due to financial constraints, the light at […]
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