This Country Has the Most Expensive McDonald’s Meal in the World

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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This Country Has the Most Expensive McDonald’s Meal in the World

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McDonald’s is the largest fast-food chain in the world, with sales of $21 billion a year. Its stock has a market value of $178 billion, which is not bad for a small restaurant business founded in 1940. Today, McDonald’s has over 38,000 locations around the world. Its menu has evolved from mostly hamburgers and french fries to one that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some McDonald’s locations are open 24 hours a day.

Not surprisingly, McDonald’s food offerings differ from place to place to satisfy local tastes and customs. You can get Bubur Ayam Mc D (savory chicken porridge) at the Golden Arches in Malaysia, a McPollo Italiano (crispy chicken with mashed avocado) in Chile and a Quinoa Curry Burger in Switzerland. Beer is on the beverage menu in Belgium, Germany, Sweden and at least a dozen other countries.

Although the price of its food has risen over the years, McDonald’s is often one of the cheapest places to eat in America. However, in many parts of the world, it can be more expensive than other options. The Economist even introduced what it dubbed the Big Mac Index in 1986 as a not entirely serious (though not at all inaccurate) measure of the comparative value of various currencies.

To determine the country where a McDonald’s meal costs the most (consisting of a burger or other main item plus fries and a soft drink, or the equivalent combo meal) in 75 countries around the world, 24/7 Tempo consulted Numbeo, a crowd-sourced global database of consumer prices and other quality-of-life information. Our prices were collected the week of August 9, 2021. (Because the data is crowd-sourced, it may vary from week to week.)
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Note that prices may vary within countries. For instance, while the average in the United States is $8, it falls to as little as $6.75 in such cities as Albuquerque and Phoenix, according to the global comparison platform Versus.

The country with the most expensive McDonald’s meal is Switzerland, where the average price of a meal at McDonald’s is equivalent to $16.42 in U.S. dollars.

Click here to see how much a McDonald’s meal costs around the world.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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