Sweden
Latest Average Wage
−1.7% · 5 years
$61,443
Country Comparison
Sweden vs New Zealand
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Sweden
vs
New Zealand
$61,4432025
Latest Average Wage
Sweden +0.9%
(vs New Zealand)
$60,8962025
−1.7%2025
5-Year Wage Change
New Zealand +4.3 pts
(vs Sweden)
+2.6%2025
+3.2%2025
10-Year Wage Change
New Zealand +12.3 pts
(vs Sweden)
+15.5%2025
81.52024
Overall Price Level
New Zealand +0.1 index points
(vs Sweden)
81.62024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
New Zealand
Latest Average Wage
+2.6% · 5 years
$60,896
Wage Milestones
Sweden
10 Years Ago
$59,542 (2015)
Historical Peak
$63,923 (2021)
Latest Wage
$61,443 (2025)
New Zealand
10 Years Ago
$52,727 (2015)
Historical Peak
$62,034 (2021)
Latest Wage
$60,896 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
Sweden (SWE)New Zealand (NZL)
Overall
−0.1 index points
100
81.5vs81.6
Food
−11.2 index points
100
90.8vs102
Clothing
+32.8 index points
100
109vs76.2
Housing
−40.8 index points
100
64.2vs105
Health
+25.8 index points
100
71.4vs45.6
Transport
+25.0 index points
100
117vs92
Recreation
+6.8 index points
100
98.4vs91.6
Restaurants & Accommodation
−6.0 index points
100
97vs103
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
Sweden's latest average wage is $61,443 for 2025, about 0.9% higher than New Zealand's $60,896 for 2025 — computed straight from the two reported values. Per year, that works out to roughly $547 on the shared purchasing-power basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, Sweden shows the stronger movement at +0.9%, against +0.7% for New Zealand. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Sweden at −1.7% and New Zealand at +2.6% — so the latest year is not the whole story. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Housing shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 64.2 for Sweden against 105 for New Zealand. New Zealand sits on the higher side of that 40.8-point spread; Sweden reads 40.8 index points lower on the US=100 scale. The gap is stated in index points, which are not interchangeable with percentages.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Overall: Sweden reads 81.5 and New Zealand 81.6 for 2024 — effectively the same relative price level on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Restaurants & Accommodation at 6.0 index points apart. Closeness here describes the index readings only, not the baskets behind them.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
Sweden and New Zealand report nearly the same PPP-adjusted average annual wage: $61,443 for 2025, against $60,896 for 2025. The difference is 0.9% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $547 a year, which is small next to either figure. No extra conversion is needed here: each figure is already a purchasing-power-adjusted annual amount in constant prices. Over ten years Sweden recorded +3.2% and New Zealand +15.5%, so the two series have been moving in the same long-term direction. For most side-by-side readings the two wage levels can be treated as equivalent within this dataset.
Wage Direction
Opposite directions define this pairing, and they pull the two wage levels closer together. Sweden is partway through a recovery: the latest year added +0.9%, though the level remains 3.9% below its peak. New Zealand has risen across the reported horizons, with a one-year change of +0.7% and a five-year change of +2.6%. The side gaining in real terms is New Zealand, the lower of the two latest wage levels (+2.6% over five years against −1.7%), so on these measures the two are closing in rather than drifting apart. Each percentage is a real, PPP-adjusted change; nominal pay movements are outside what this dataset reports.
Price Profile
Sweden's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 81.5, and New Zealand's reads 81.6, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: Sweden leads in 4 of the 8 comparable categories and New Zealand in 3, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. Housing separates the two most: Sweden reads 64.2 and New Zealand 105, 40.8 index points apart. The two sit closest in Overall (81.5 versus 81.6), only 0.1 index points apart. Counted against the US reference of 100, 2 of Sweden's 8 reported categories sit above the line, against 3 of New Zealand's 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
