Big Mac Data Index

These data visualizations represent recent information (July 2018) which compares the pricing of a Big Mac burger which is an example of an identical product, and its comparison costs globally.

The following map (Tab 1) demonstrates the cost in US dollars and this is shown by the size of the bubble whilst the colour demonstrates the currency and the location of the country. If you click on the bubble, you can access information regarding the specific US cost per country and the Dollar PPP for that country.

In Tab 2, the red line graph compares the costs from the most expensive country which is Switzerland at $6.54 and the cheapest being Egypt at $1.75 for the same product.

The biggest insight can be that the cost of labour in countries where the same Big Mac is produced is cheaper than that of other countries.

The horizontal bar graph on tab 2 represents the PPP data of which Vietnam has the highest PPP at almost $11 800. This is supposed to mean that to purchase a basket of good in Vietnam would be nearly 12000 times more than in the US. But the Big Mac is only $2.82 in Vietnam.

The visualisation on tab 3 represents costs in a treemap. This is useful in comparing the costs of a Big Mac by the size of the blocks.

This index is a useful indicator of costs in different countries. It also can highlight inaccuracies in measures such as the Dollar PPP.

The same data can be used to look at inflation and how costs of Big Mac's have increased in certain countries.

Source: The Economist. Data: https://github.com/TheEconomist/big-mac-data/blob/master/output-data/big-mac-2018-07-01.xls