What the same groceries cost in Norway, Sweden and the UK
Nutella, Coca-Cola, Heinz, milk and eggs, priced on the same day in all three countries. Some results are expected. Norway's cheap butter is not.
Norway has a reputation for expensive food, and a lot of it is deserved. But when we collected real supermarket prices for our grocery game Let's Shop, some of the comparisons surprised us.
We took the products that exist in all three countries in the same or very similar form, and converted everything to Norwegian kroner using Norges Bank's exchange rates for the day the prices were collected.
The numbers
All prices were collected on 30 July 2026 and converted at £1 = 12.81 kr and 1 SEK = 0.997 kr. The original price in local currency is in brackets. The cheapest in each row is in bold.
| Product | Norway | Sweden | UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nutella, 350 g | 39.90 kr | 37.64 kr (37.76 SEK) | 40.98 kr (£3.20) |
| Red Bull, 250 ml can | 14.94 kr | 12.86 kr (12.90 SEK) | 26.89 kr (£2.10) |
| Coca-Cola, per litre | 16.67 kr | 12.89 kr (19.40 SEK for 1.5 L) | 20.12 kr (£2.75 for 1.75 L) |
| Heinz ketchup, per kg | 41.05 kr (23.40 kr for 570 g) | 44.51 kr (25.45 SEK for 570 g) | 64.02 kr (£3.50 for 700 g) |
| Barilla pasta, 500 g | 22.50 kr | 21.60 kr (21.67 SEK) | 12.80 kr (£1.00) |
| Philadelphia Original, per 100 g | 14.95 kr | 10.61 kr (21.29 SEK for 200 g) | 10.48 kr (£1.35 for 165 g) |
| Butter, 500 g | 47.20 kr | 57.72 kr (57.90 SEK) | 50.96 kr (£3.98) |
| Whole milk, per litre | 20.90 kr | 13.86 kr (13.90 SEK) | 12.80 kr (£2.00 for 2 L) |
| Eggs, per egg (12-pack) | 5.41 kr | 2.59 kr (31.13 SEK) | 3.57 kr (£3.35) |
The first six rows are the same brand in every country. Butter, milk and eggs are the closest everyday equivalent from a local brand, so treat those as "what you'd typically put in the basket" rather than an exact match.
What stands out
Big global brands cost about the same everywhere. A jar of Nutella is within about 10% in all three countries. When the product, the factory and the supplier are the same, the price tends to land in the same place.
Norway is cheapest for butter and ketchup. Norwegian butter (Tine) came out cheaper than both the Swedish and the British option, and Heinz ketchup cost less per kilo in Norway than in either neighbour. Not what most people would guess.
Milk and eggs are where Norway really hurts. A litre of milk costs about 60% more than in the UK. A Norwegian egg costs more than twice as much as a Swedish one. Butter aside, these are the items where Norway's farming and import rules show up most clearly at the checkout.
The UK is expensive for drinks. Red Bull costs about twice as much as in Sweden, and Coca-Cola is the most expensive per litre of the three countries. Pasta and cream cheese, on the other hand, are cheapest in Britain.
Sweden wins the most rows. Four of the nine items are cheapest at the Swedish store, and it's never the most expensive for any of the same-brand products.
How we got the numbers, and the catches
These numbers come from the price data behind Let's Shop, not from a scientific survey, so a few things are worth knowing:
- Norwegian prices are the cheapest listing we found across 11 grocery chains, including REMA 1000, Kiwi, Coop, Meny and Oda. That tilts Norway's numbers slightly in its favour.
- Swedish prices are from Willys, a discount chain, and UK prices are from Sainsbury's, a mid-market supermarket.
- This is one day's prices. A single special offer can move a row a lot. The £1 Barilla pasta may well have been on promotion.
- Pack sizes differ for some products. Those are compared per kilo, litre, 100 g or egg, as shown in the table.
So it's a snapshot, not a verdict. But it shows that "everything is more expensive in Norway" isn't quite the whole story.
Think you know your prices?
Let's Shop is a game built on exactly this kind of data: real groceries from Norway, Sweden and the UK. You guess the price, every wrong guess costs you money, and the lowest total wins. Rounds take a few minutes, you can play alone or with friends from your phones, and the game ends with a printed-style receipt of everything you got wrong.