Q.317

This debuted in The Economist in 1986 and has been a popular albeit farcical method of making a certain comparison. It appears annually, though it is updated several times a year. This year, India appears in the list for the first ever time, but the results must be taken with a pinch of salt, since the Indian version isn’t the same as it is elsewhere.

There have been calls to try out other objects, but so far, this has been resisted. However, this year, The Economist collected the source data via crowdsourcing and not, as it were, from the cow’s mouth.

What is all this about?

[+ Show Answer]

The Big Mac Index, which uses the prices of the McDonalds Big Mac burger to compare purchasing power and exchange rates across countries. The chain does not make Big Macs in India because they are made with beef and uses the Maharajah Mac instead. Read this Economist article on "burgernomics" for more details.