In recent years, the idea of Costa Rica being a very expensive country has been widely reported in news headlines. Many North American expats who moved to Costa Rica believe that this is possibly the most expensive country in the world; nonetheless, this is not an assertion held by MoveHub, an online information exchange website for professionals and families who relocate internationally.

According to MoveHub, the most expensive country in the world is not Costa Rica, and it is not located in the Americas. MoveHub recently calculated the typical weekly essentials (groceries and household items) of the average British family around the globe to see exactly how expensive feeding a family of four can be.

The MoveHub research indicates that food costs in Uganda are 275.86 percent, based on a shopping basket equal to the UK average (British families spend around 12% of their salaries on grocery staples), calculated by Office of National Statistics in 2013, and adjusted for inflation. The prices used represent local costs in each country based on purchasing the same items. Based upon this calculation, MoveHub estimates that the cost of feeding a family of four in Costa Rica is 29.80 percent, almost the same as in South Africa and Thailand.

Three African nations top MoveHub’s list of expensive countries to feed a family. Ethiopia and Kenya follow Uganda. Costa Rica is not the most expensive in Latin America; not even in Central America, where Honduras tops the list at 100.54 percent. The most affordable nations are Singapore, Kuwait and Qatar with rates lower than five percent.

Bolivia, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Peru are all listed as countries where it costs more to feed a family than Costa Rica. Food prices in these countries are actually lower than in other nations across the Americas; the problem can be found in the stagnant wages that are perennially stuck at low levels despite regional economic growth.