The geographic spread dossier · PW-IDX-BIG-MAC
What Big Mac costs, country by country.
The same big mac priced across 19 countries, normalized to USD and shown as a share of the local minimum wage. This dossier leads with the geographic spread — what you pay where it is cheapest versus priciest. Every figure is a dated reading from 2025-01-01, not a live quote.
- Subject
- Big Mac Index · Big Mac
- The spread
- What the same item costs where it is cheapest vs. priciest, and the multiple between them.
- Affordability
- The USD price as a share of the local monthly minimum wage.
- Normalization
- Local prices converted to USD at a dated FX rate (2025-01-01).
- Tier
- Source-backed (read at the source, dated), not a live feed.
Figures are recorded readings from The Economist, normalized to USD at a dated FX rate and dated 2025-01-01 — not a live feed, not monitored, not promised-current. Prices move with currencies and local markets; treat this as a dated snapshot, not financial advice.
The three figures that frame it
Where it is cheapest, the middle of the pack, and where it is priciest — the two ends of the spread plus the median.
- Cheapest on file $2.54 🇮🇩 Indonesia Best price
- Median $4.87 🇦🇺 Australia Middle of 19
- Priciest on file $7.99 🇨🇭 Switzerland High end of the gap
- Most affordable 0.15% of min wage 🇨🇭 Switzerland Smallest share of a wage
- Countries on file 19 + 1 with no reading Coverage
- Least affordable 4.60% of min wage 🇮🇳 India Largest share of a wage
Section · The country ledger
Every country on file, read the same way
Each country is entered with its local price, the USD-normalized reading, the time to afford it at the local median income, and its share of the local minimum wage. The cheapest row is shaded; the priciest is marked. Click a column to re-sort.
| Rank | Country | Local price | USD | Time to afford | % of min wage | Affordability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indonesia · cheapest | IDR 41,000 | $2.54 | 149 min of work | 0.75% | 0.75% |
| 2 | India | INR 226 | $2.62 | 158 min of work | 4.60% | 4.60% |
| 3 | Egypt | EGP 135 | $2.69 | 189 min of work | 2.02% | 2.02% |
| 4 | Philippines | PHP 169 | $2.89 | 153 min of work | 0.96% | 0.96% |
| 5 | Japan | JPY 480 | $3.11 | 12 min of work | 0.27% | 0.27% |
| 6 | South Korea | KRW 5,500 | $3.84 | 17 min of work | 0.27% | 0.27% |
| 7 | Thailand | THB 135 | $4.01 | 121 min of work | 1.10% | 1.10% |
| 8 | Brazil | BRL 23.90 | $4.03 | 85 min of work | 1.30% | 1.30% |
| 9 | Mexico | MXN 95.00 | $4.60 | 108 min of work | 0.86% | 0.86% |
| 10 | Australia | AUD 7.75 | $4.87 | 14 min of work | 0.17% | 0.17% |
| 11 | Singapore | SGD 6.95 | $5.17 | 13 min of work | 0.41% | 0.41% |
| 12 | Poland | PLN 20.90 | $5.21 | 46 min of work | 0.40% | 0.40% |
| 13 | Turkey | TRY 190 | $5.32 | 86 min of work | 0.84% | 0.84% |
| 14 | Canada | CAD 7.81 | $5.43 | 16 min of work | 0.26% | 0.26% |
| 15 | United Kingdom | GBP 4.59 | $5.73 | 19 min of work | 0.21% | 0.21% |
| 16 | United States | USD 5.79 | $5.79 | 14 min of work | 0.46% | 0.46% |
| 17 | Germany | EUR 5.67 | $5.95 | 18 min of work | 0.22% | 0.22% |
| 18 | Argentina | ARS 7,300 | $6.95 | 183 min of work | 2.71% | 2.71% |
| 19 | Switzerland · priciest | CHF 7.20 | $7.99 | 15 min of work | 0.15% | 0.15% |
| — | Nigeria | No reading on file | ||||
Local prices are converted to USD at the recorded FX rate (2025-01-01). Time to afford is the price ÷ the local hourly median income (8-hour day, 22 days/month), from ILOSTAT. Affordability % is the USD price ÷ the local monthly minimum wage. A country with no reading on file is listed but not ranked.
Section · How this file is built
Method & provenance
One recorded reading
Figures come from The Economist, read for this index and dated 2025-01-01. It is a point-in-time reading held as a dated reference, not a live feed.
Normalized to USD
Local prices are converted to USD at a dated FX rate (2025-01-01) so countries are comparable. Currency moves after that date are not reflected.
Affordability, not just price
The same USD price is a different burden depending on local wages. The share-of-minimum-wage column and time-to-afford put each price next to what people there actually earn.
Not advice
Prices move with currencies and local markets. Treat this as a dated snapshot for comparison, not financial advice or a guide to arbitrage across borders.
Prices and the as-read date are real values from the PriceWorld indexes dataset, read 2025-01-01 from The Economist. Nothing here is presented as live, monitored, or promised-current. Confirm the current figure with the source before relying on it.