Brazil is the largest Latin American market for McDonald's when it comes to the size of the franchise network, as over 1,000 McDonald's restaurants are in operation in the Brazilian territory. In Latin America, McDonald's largest franchisee is Arcos Dorados Holdings, with headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay. McDonald’s is a worldwide operating fast food restaurant chain with headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. The Big Mac, as the top-selling McDonald’s burger, is used for comparison because it is available in almost every country and manufactured in a standardized size, composition and quality. As many countries have different currencies, the standardized Big Mac prices are calculated by converting the average national Big Mac prices with the latest exchange rate to U.S. The Bic Mac index has been published annually by The Economist since 1986 and is rated as a simplified indicator of a country’s individual purchasing power. dollars, while the average price for a Big Mac burger in Brazil amounted to approximately 4.31 U.S. In Colombia, it was estimated that a Big Mac would cost an average of 3.3 U.S. It all started in 1986 when The Economist magazine decided to estimate the currencies' value by country based on the prices of Big Mac at McDonald's fast-food restaurants.

The so-called Big Mac Index is regarded as an indicator for the purchasing power of an economy. The Big Mac Index is the price of the burger in various countries that are converted to one currency (such as the US dollar) and used to measure purchasing power parity. As of January 2022, Uruguay had the highest Big Mac Index and Colombia, the lowest, among the Latin American countries measured.

Big mac index example with pesos