It’s quite easy to complain about the drastic increase in gas prices. Looking at straight facts, the US remains a cheap location to fill up. Out of 155 countries surveyed, U.S. gas prices were the 45th cheapest, according to a recent study from AIRINC, a research firm that tracks cost of living data. The data below shows the findings from the firm.
Most expensive places to buy gas
| Rank | Country | Price/gal |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Bosnia-Herzegovina | $10.86 |
| 2. | Eritrea | $9.58 |
| 3. | Norway | $8.73 |
| 4. | United Kingdom | $8.38 |
| 5. | Netherlands | $8.37 |
| 6. | Monaco | $8.31 |
| 7. | Iceland | $8.28 |
| 8. | Belgium | $8.22 |
| 9. | France | $8.07 |
| 10. | Germany | $7.86 |
| 111. | United States | $3.45 |
Cheapest Oil Prices
| Rank | Country | Price/gal |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Venezuela | 12 cents |
| 2. | Iran | 40 cents |
| 3. | Saudi Arabia | 45 cents |
| 4. | Libya | 50 cents |
| 5. | Swaziland | 54 cents |
| 6. | Qatar | 73 cents |
| 7. | Bahrain | 81 cents |
| 8. | Egypt | 89 cents |
| 9. | Kuwait | 90 cents |
| 10. | Seychelles | 98 cents |
| 45. | United States | $3.48 |
Hidden data not strictly in the numbers above is what each government does with extra revenue received from gas taxes. For example, most of the European countries (with astronomical gas prices) use the revenue from taxes to fund improvements in public transportation. These improvements along with the high price of gas breeds a culture content with using public transportation for all needs.
The former EXTREMELY low price of gasoline in the US led to the purchases of automobiles into virtually every household. On a per capita basis, Americans use three times more oil than Europeans. With the recent increase in prices, people feel the crunch but remain committed in their love affair with cars.
Americans must accept the consequences of overconsumption and learn to adapt. Improvements will come with slight changes to our way of life. Making concerted efforts to reduce gasoline consumption by walking, carpooling, and using public transportation can reduce the price of gas, help the environment, and increase fitness. Accept responsibility, make some changes and let’s improve our world.
Improving Life 
i agree, we in the states take low fuel prices for granted, when you but that pint of tea or soada pop, figure out how much you would pay for a gallon of that same item. gas is still a bargin. supply and demand, if it was up to me, i would keep them rising, if people are willing to pay me for my product, whay not make as much as i can.
Thats a good way to look at it , people need to adapt like you said , there are several other things that could be done to combat prices a bit , one being make sure your car is tuned properly
Mark I can easily see the price continueing to increase. I don’t think anyone is consuming considerably less because of the current price hence they should be willing to pay more. Hopefully there will be a middle ground established so the price will remain more constant.
Good point Dave, making sure you have new air filters and sufficient tire pressure are quick things one can do to conserve more gas.
*I just noticed you have that on your webpage
Yes, well, you are overlooking one teeny tiny fact. The United States refines fuel. Last I checked, I couldn’t find hide nor hair of a refinery in Bosnia or Monaco. We should be much closer to the bottom of the list. No excuse for this other than pure greed.
And if you look at gas prices now, relative to before Mr. Bush assumed the presidency, oil was 20$ a barrel. That is what im pissed about. For him, its mission accomplished.
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Having been to Swaziland recently, I know for a FACT that their fuel is NOT 54 US Cents per gallon. It’s actually about US $1.00 more expensive. In May 2007 it was about $3.80, and it is more expensive now with currency fluctuations and their own price increases, now pushing $5.00 per gallon.
The Swazi’s have a currency situation where they are locked 1:1 with the South African Rand, and the Rand is widely accepted for transactions in Swaziland. When I was there last year fuel was selling for about 6.90 Rand per liter. At the time the US Dollar was trading about about 7.00 Rand to 1 Dollar.
I know the story you got this from is not your doing, but it just goes to show the media doesn’t always know what is going on, or that they even bother to fact check the information they use.
I agree wholeheartedly with your other readers that there is MUCH we in the USA can do to lower our burden. We drive entirely too much.
i would be interested to see the comparison between how much driving is done on average in these other countries, however. a lot of things might be cheaper by the gallon…but how many people drink 10-20 or more gallons of tea or soda per week?
I’m not sure where Sweden is on this, but about a year and a half ago I lived there and gas prices were a lot higher than here. However now they may only be “slightly” higher.
Cynical, thanks for the response. I will try to do more research for future posts. It is quite unfortunate that so-called “credible” news sources would report faulty numbers.
Hey, the more people who lose their jobs, the lower the gas prices will go. It’s also good for the environment. That’s the new Bush environmental plan. He’s doing a pretty good job at making it happen right now. 😛
They built a new mall within walking distance from my house. There are dozens of restaurants. I love walking there instead of driving. It’s good for my bills and for my health!
yeap we have in venezuela the cheapest price on gas, it is more cheap them water jejeje weee realy enjoy our cars….
LOL jaredude, I didn’t realize Bush was a genius! :p
I really like the idea that the gas taxes are used to fund public transportation programs. That’s one of the biggest problems with living here in the U.S. Outside of a few major cities, public transportation is either non-existent, or unusable. I live in Austin, TX which has only a bus system. That translates into 90 minutes to get to my office by bus, and only 15 by car.
Most of these countries have wonderful mass transit systems on the local, region AND national level. The US sold out its train system to let automobiles rule the road and now, we’re stuck with no form of affordable transportation. I say keep the gas tax this summer and invest in mass transit.
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Yes, Campbele. I never thought of it that way. People won’t mind the tax if it is put to good use…in the long run.
I’m in Canada, and in my city, gas is up to $1.28 / LITER. (Roughly $5.25 / gallon, and has been up there for quite some time). I’m almost ready to sell my car to buy the fuel.
Hmm.. or maybe I should move to Venezuela..
In Portugal we pay around $5.06/gallon for diesel, for 98 oct. gas is even more. The problem in the States that I saw when I was there is that everything is pretty damn far away so you have to consume a lot of gas and with the air conditioner on on summer or winter it even drinks more gas
“These improvements along with the high price of gas breeds a culture content with using public transportation for all needs.”
From the point of view of an austrian citizen, I have to say, this is not strictly true. Public Transport is not as good that you can get everywhere by using it. Even here in the city of Vienna, a lot of people use their cars to get to work instead of public transport. If you live in the countryside, you often need a car to get to work and to shops.
However, as far as I know, european cars do use a whole lot less gasoline than us cars (on an average).
Gas should be much more expensive to force people to wake the fuck up and realize that we are running out. We need to move *as a country* to alternative fuels and high mileage vehicles sooner rather than later if we want to preserve our quality of life.
When will people quit comparing the price of gas to items such as soda? It’s rediculous and no longer (if ever it was) insightful.
I don’t buy 16 gallons of Coke.
Public transportation? It’s a metro argument that overlooks the largest part of the country which has no choice but to commute and there wouldn’t be enough passengers in rural areas to support such a thing traveling to every small town. It works in Europe b/c it’s practical to their situation. It works in cities here for the same reason, but not ALL of America is urban as most who propose solutions think it is.
Try living in a rural area before making a one size fits all solution!
As always there are statistics and damn lies, all I can say is that here in the UK we are currently paying around £1.10 per litre for deisel at the supermarkets, considerably more in remote areas, that converts to £5.05 per Imp Gallon (slightly more for a US Gallon), I’ll let you check the currency conversion rate but its nearly 2:1 taking us close to $10 a gallon.
What is also true is that we too refine our own oil (oil taken from our own territorial waters) and that because this is a situation that we have had for many years we are very focused on how many mpg our cars will do when we buy them, hence the huge uptake in deisel vehicles – my Ford Mondeo has returns of around 50 mpg on a good day.
What is not true is that the UK invests heavily in public transport, we invest barely nothing in new public transit systems, my city has recently had a planning application turned down for a new city wide tram system as HM Government will not hand over the cash that they promised would be available when the planning process started, ourtrain service is hugely over-priced and deliberately over-crowded to discourage use and yet we motorists contribute billions to the economy as more than 80% of the cost of our fuel is taxation, and very cynically the Government use “green” issues to keep putting up the taxation level – “this tax is good for the environment” they tell us.
A friend of mine just posted an article about some price gouging taking place near the University California Santa Barbara.
$4.43 for regular! That’s insane for Southern CA, where most prices are below $4 for regular. Tie this in with the recent record profits from major oil companies… We’re being taken for a ride! In a big, gas guzzling SUV 😛
Thanks for the mindblowing amount that “poor” nations pay for gas.
This rest of the post is total bullshit. Really pathetic.
Nations crying “poverty”, are paying less than half a buck a gallon, while the “rich” West is being screwed by thier respective governments and indoctrinated by the idiots screaming thier silly global warming myths to cut back on energy use??
This is a sick twisted world we live in. My gosh, when is the west going to wake up and demand an end to this complete insanity?
Check out this new feed from MotorTrend you can subscribe to your local gas prices by your zip code. This is being offered as a free service to help reduce the cost on the American people.
http://www.motortrend.com/widgetrss
Hi,
This link does not display the price but only codes, so can you provide a means to map these codes to prices?
Thanks,
Ivan
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The U.S. can complain.
For 1, all of those countries have WAY LESS land mass than the US, and most work within distance to take public transportation or walk. In the U.S. This is vastly different, A LOT of people drive far distances every day, just to get to work/school etc, meaning we use more oil. It’s not like we just use it cruising around, some of us HAVE TO use it to get to school/work on time, because there’s no public transportation to get us there, or it doesn’t get us close enough. Fuck off other countries, and Libya can burn as long as we get out cheaper gas.