Timelines
How the Price of a Big Mac Has Changed Around the World (2000-2022)
The iconic Big Mac is a two-beef patty, three bun delicacy topped with iceberg lettuce, American cheese, pickles, chopped onions and the super secret Mac Sauce. In 1968, it was so popular with its limited release in Pennsylvania that it was rolled out to every McDonald’s restaurant across the United States. That popularity never waned and there is now an entire economic phenomenon known as ‘burgernomics’ modeled from the Big Mac. Economists will use the price of the big mac as a way to gauge inflation rates and economics across globe. Today the Big Mac is up 40% from 2010. We can see in this video visualization by /u/jcceagle that follows the price of a Big Mac over the last 20 years, just how different cost can be across the globe and over time.
In the year 2000 Norway had the most expensive Big Mac for $4.09, while in the Philippines it cost $1.17. Eight years later, Norway still tops the charts with the most expensive Big Mac but instead of just over four dollars, it increased to $7.88. At that time in the US a Big Mac cost $3.57 while the cheapest was found in Malaysia for $1.70 and the Philippines increased to $1.96. In July 2017 the most expensive Big Mac was down across the board from 2008 to $6.74 in Switzerland. That same year a Big Mac in the US would have cost you $5.30 and $1.70 in the Ukraine. The video also shows an index of currency valued relative to the US dollar where you can see the values changes across the different currency around the world.