Global Dastarkhan Index: February 2023 results

The calculation of Global Dastarkhan Index (GDI) is based on data for 34 cities of developed and developing countries. In this release we have added two new countries – Russia and Uzbekistan and 4 cities, namely Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Tashkent and Samarkand.

Just a reminder: The Dastarkhan Index consists of 5 traditional dishes (sorpa, besbarmak, vegetable salad, a portion of bauyrsaks, zhent and a tea with milk) and shows how many servings of this set of dishes residents in different cities can afford for the average salary and it also evaluates their purchasing power.

Calculation methodology of the Index for Kazakhstan cities has also been amended slightly: previously, official salary statistics data was used for the number of serving calculation, and now – Jusan big-data was used. This explains such a significant variation in number of servings between two versions of the Index.

So, USA, Great Britain, Singapore, Luxembourg and South Africa – are TOP 5 countries with the largest number of Dastarkhan servings. In comparison with the previous release, the top range of countries remains unchanged. Although in Singapore and Birmingham there is a noticeable decrease in the number of servings by 14 and 31, respectively. Average salary in Singapore has not changed, and in Birmingham it has risen slightly. On the other hand, the prices for almost all constituent products have risen in Birmingham, especially for millet and milk. 

In the lower range there have also been some changes: according to new data, residents of Batumi, Samarkand, Osh, Cairo and Alexandria can afford the least number of servings of Dastarkhan Index. These cities are seeing significant decline in number of servings, as well as in average salaries. In fact, two Egyptian cities are at the bottom of the ranking. 

Among the cities with the largest number of servings of Dastarkhan, Washington – 605 servings (614)¹ and New York – 553 (504) stand out, which are also the leaders in terms of wages. On the other hand, the least number of servings is in two cities of Egypt at once: Cairo – 35 (50) and Alexandria – 34 servings (45). The outsider of last ranking, Osh, improved slightly, with 19 more servings compared to previous results.

¹  Previous results of the rating are in the brackets

In addition, there is quite a wide variation in number of servings now. Compared with previous results of the Index about a half of cities observed are experiencing a decline in number of servings. This is explained by a large variation in salaries and inflation rates across countries. For example, average salary in New York is 49 times higher than in Alexandria. At the same time, the cost of food basket for Dastarkhan in New York is only 3.02 times higher.

If we compare Kazakhstan with other countries, then residents of Astana and Almaty cities can afford 3.5 times fewer Dastarkhan servings than people in Washington. At the same time, in Astana the Index is 13 portions less than in Marseille, while the indicators for Almaty and Astana are higher than in Seoul and Saint Petersburg by 27 and 12 portions, respectively. Of course, we should not forget, that quality of life is measured by many criteria, and the food accessibility is just one of them.

Therefore, based on our data, we can conclude, that the food purchasing power of our cities is now quite close to cities such as Shanghai and Marseille.