ChartBar Explained | How Much Does a Meal Cost Across Taiwan?

Adapted from the most popular post (774 likes, 237 saves) on the ChartBar Instagram account.

Key findings

• Taipei City is the highest at NT$389.4 per transaction, followed by Yilan (NT$343.9), Nantou (NT$334.1) and Hualien (NT$323.9).
• Yunlin County is the lowest at NT$176.8, followed by Tainan (NT$185.0) and Chiayi County (NT$190.4).
• The gap between the highest and lowest is about 2.2x.

Reading it correctly

The figures are the average amount per e-invoice, not per person — a group meal is usually a single invoice. The data also only covers businesses that issue e-invoices, so street stalls and night-market vendors are excluded, which skews the averages toward chains and larger restaurants. Tourist areas also include visitor spending, so treat the ranking as a relative comparison rather than a measure of local living costs.

Why this chart design

A ranked table + choropleth map pairing: the table enables precise comparison, the map shows geographic patterns, and both share one color scale.

Source: Taiwan Government Open Data Platform (B2C e-invoice dataset), 2022 Q1. Made with Tableau.