Countries With The Most Expensive Gas This Summer

Special Report

Published: September 5, 2021 2:00 pm

Gasoline is an essential part of the modern world, helping to power industry and move just about everything, including people, products, and raw materials. Wars and crises have been centered around oil over the years. The 1973 oil embargo crisis, for example, caused gas shortages in the U.S. and worldwide and oil prices to skyrocket, disrupting the global economy.

The recent hack of the Colonial Pipeline that caused shortages in the U.S. East Coast reminded us that shortages aren’t necessarily a thing of the past — even if the U.S. has become less reliant on foregin oil in the decades since.

And just like the price of gas differs from one U.S. state to the next, the price of gasoline can differ dramatically from country to country around the globe. In some oil-rich nations, such as Saudi Arabia, governments subsidize fuel. In other nations, oil can be hard to access, or it is heavily taxed, or expensive due to geopolitical conflicts.

To identify the countries with the most expensive gas, 24/7 Wall St. relied on gas prices per liter obtained on Aug. 24, 2021 from Numbeo — an online database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. We used data for 109 countries with sufficient numbers of contributors and then converted to price per gallon. Numbeo aggregates data for countries in real time so it may change faster than government data sets. Population figures came from the World Bank and are for 2020.

By far, most of the countries on this list are European, including all Nordic nations, which rank among the top 15. Island nations Japan and New Zealand also rank on the list. South America and Africa are among the least represented on the list, while no country from North America made the list. The U.S. does not rank on the list, having the 86th highest gas price among the 109 countries considered.

While substantial effort is underway to move to more sustainable power sources, our world is still very much dependent on gasoline. For a range of hybrids and EVs, check out the most eco-friendly cars on the market.

Rising fuel prices also substantially affect prices across the economy. Nearly every good is transported using gasoline, from raw materials to end products. In 2020, the U.S. industrial sector accounted for 36% of total U.S. end-use energy consumption, according to the Energy Information Administration. So when the price of oil goes up, it causes other prices to also increase.

While supply wars between oil-rich nations and the COVID-19 pandemic last year contributed to a sharp decline in oil prices, prices have since recovered. The pandemic has further exasperated supply chains and caused many prices to fluctuate. Check out 20 groceries driving up your food bill the most during the pandemic.

Click here to see countries with the most expensive gas this summer

Source: tifonimages / Getty Images

50. Chile
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.13
> Population: 19,116,209

Source: xavierarnau / Getty Images

49. Morocco
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.24
> Population: 36,910,558

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Source: Instants / Getty Images

48. India
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.43
> Population: 1,380,004,385

Source: mbrand85 / Getty Images

47. Jordan
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.47
> Population: 10,203,140

Source: sfabisuk / Getty Images

46. Bulgaria
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.69
> Population: 6,927,288

Source: cemagraphics / Getty Images

45. Kosovo
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.81
> Population: 1,775,378

Source: QQ7 / iStock via Getty Images

44. North Macedonia
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.81
> Population: 2,083,380

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Source: RossHelen / Getty Images

43. Romania
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.88
> Population: 19,286,123

Source: Mlenny / Getty Images

42. South Korea
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.88
> Population: 51,780,579

Source: yongyuan / Getty Images

41. Japan
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.92
> Population: 125,836,021

Source: Xantana / Getty Images

40. Poland
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.92
> Population: 37,950,802

Source: Greg Sullavan / Getty Images

39. Bosnia And Herzegovina
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.92
> Population: 3,280,815

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Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

38. Uruguay
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.92
> Population: 3,473,727

Source: Tamer_Desouky / Getty Images

37. Zimbabwe
> Avg price per gallon this August: $4.92
> Population: 14,862,927

Source: TomasSereda / Getty Images

36. Hungary
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.07
> Population: 9,749,763

Source: tibu / Getty Images

35. Luxembourg
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.11
> Population: 632,275

Source: vikau / Getty Images

34. Lithuania
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.22
> Population: 2,794,700

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Source: nejdetduzen / Getty Images

33. Cyprus
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.26
> Population: 1,207,361

Source: nantonov / Getty Images

32. Czech Republic
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.34
> Population: 10,698,896

Source: Mustang_79 / Getty Images

31. Austria
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.34
> Population: 8,917,205

Source: Remedios / Getty Images

30. Slovenia
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.53
> Population: 2,100,126

Source: KavalenkavaVolha / Getty Images

29. Latvia
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.56
> Population: 1,901,548

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Source: Robert CHG / Getty Images

28. New Zealand
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.60
> Population: 5,084,300

Source: Gatsi / Getty Images

27. Spain
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.68
> Population: 47,351,567

Montenegro (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Aleksandr Zykov

26. Montenegro
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.72
> Population: 621,718

Source: QQ7 / Getty Images

25. Slovakia
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.79
> Population: 5,458,827

Source: vladimir_n / Getty Images

24. Serbia
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.87
> Population: 6,908,224

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Source: rusm / Getty Images

23. Croatia
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.94
> Population: 4,047,200

Source: KavalenkavaVolha / Getty Images

22. Estonia
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.98
> Population: 1,331,057

Source: master2 / Getty Images

21. Albania
> Avg price per gallon this August: $5.98
> Population: 2,837,743

Source: Jui-Chi Chan / Getty Images

20. Singapore
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.21
> Population: 5,685,807

Source: danilovi / Getty Images

19. Malta
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.21
> Population: 525,285

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Source: orpheus26 / Getty Images

18. Belgium
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.25
> Population: 11,555,997

Source: bluejayphoto / Getty Images

17. Germany
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.28
> Population: 83,240,525

Source: benstevens / Getty Images

16. Ireland
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.28
> Population: 4,994,724

Source: scanrail / Getty Images

15. Denmark
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.51
> Population: 5,831,404

Source: manjik / Getty Images

14. France
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.51
> Population: 67,391,582

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Source: IakovKalinin / Getty Images

13. United Kingdom
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.55
> Population: 67,215,293

Source: scanrail / Getty Images

12. Sweden
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.66
> Population: 10,353,442

Source: Boyloso / Getty Images

11. Iceland
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.70
> Population: 366,425

Source: AleksandarGeorgiev / Getty Images

10. Switzerland
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.74
> Population: 8,636,896

Source: Eva-Katalin / Getty Images

9. Italy
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.78
> Population: 59,554,023

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Source: cookelma / Getty Images

8. Norway
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.78
> Population: 5,379,475

Source: Sean Pavone / Getty Images

7. Portugal
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.81
> Population: 10,305,564

Source: scanrail / Getty Images

6. Finland
> Avg price per gallon this August: $6.89
> Population: 5,530,719

Source: RobertBreitpaul / Getty Images

5. Greece
> Avg price per gallon this August: $7.04
> Population: 10,715,549

Source: Sean Pavone / Getty Images

4. Israel
> Avg price per gallon this August: $7.19
> Population: 9,216,900

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Palestine (CC BY 2.0) by Todd Huffman

3. Palestine
> Avg price per gallon this August: $7.31
> Population: 4,803,269

Source: Olena_Znak / Getty Images

2. Netherlands
> Avg price per gallon this August: $7.34
> Population: 17,441,139

Source: pat138241 / Getty Images

1. Hong Kong
> Avg price per gallon this August: $8.86
> Population: 7,481,800

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