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No McDonald's in Iraq2026

No McDonald’s — not in the index Reviewed July 2026

McDonald’s Corporation has never granted a franchise in Iraq — neither in federal Iraq nor in the Kurdistan Region — so there is no Big Mac price to publish.

Why Iraq has no Big Mac price

There is no official Big Mac price in Iraq, full stop. McDonald’s has never granted a public franchise in the country, in either Baghdad-controlled Iraq or the Kurdistan Region.

The best-known stand-in is MaDonal in Sulaymaniyah, opened by a Vienna-trained Kurdish cook, Suleiman Qassab, after McDonald’s Corporation turned down his franchise application in the 1990s. It still trades, and its “Big Mack” has been written about since a 2006 Globe and Mail dispatch put it at around $1.25. It is an independent operator with no franchise fee, no global supply chain and a Kurdish rather than international cost base — a reference to a Big Mac, not a Big Mac.

The actual American burger chain in Iraq is Burger King, which opened in Erbil in November 2019 and has since grown past a dozen locations. KFC is the dominant American fast-food brand overall, but chicken makes it unusable as a Big Mac comparator. Baghdad, Basra and Mosul have no Western burger chain at all.

Iraq also carries the exchange-rate problem that runs through most of the countries on this list: an official dinar rate and a black-market rate that do not agree, so the choice of rate quietly determines the answer.

Iraq forces the methodological question the Big Mac Index rarely confronts head-on — what do you do with a country where the reference product does not exist? The Economist’s answer is to omit it, and Iraq has never carried an index line. Ours is to publish the country page with the explanation and no price, which is better than a number readers would inevitably misread.

Read the full story

This page is the short version. The full write-up goes through the timeline, the sources and the numbers that do exist.

Why there's no McDonald's in Iraq — full article

Status at a glance

McDonald's restaurantsNone
StatusNever opened — no franchise ever granted, in either federal Iraq or the Kurdistan Region
Closest local equivalent MaDonal Big Mack (imitator) · د.ع4,000 IQD (~$3.05) — not a McDonald's product, and not a Big Mac Index data point
Big Mac Index coverageNot tracked — there is no Big Mac to price
RegionMiddle East
Sources Wikipedia — MaDonal (Sulaymaniyah imitator restaurant) , Middle East Eye — Iraq American fast food after invasion , Kurdistan24 — Gulf/Jordanian McDonald's seek Kurdish potatoes , Globe and Mail — MaDonal Big Mack shadow war (2006) , Burger King Iraq — official (Erbil operates only)

Related reading from the blog

Deeper coverage tied to Iraq:

Frequently asked questions

Is there a McDonald’s in Iraq?

No. McDonald’s Corporation has never granted a franchise in Iraq, in either federal Iraq or the Kurdistan Region, and no licensed restaurant has ever operated there.

What is MaDonal?

MaDonal is an independent imitator restaurant in Sulaymaniyah, opened by a Vienna-trained Kurdish cook, Suleiman Qassab, after McDonald’s turned down his franchise application in the 1990s. Its “Big Mack” is not a McDonald’s product.

Which Western burger chains operate in Iraq?

Burger King opened in Erbil in November 2019 and has since passed a dozen locations, and KFC is the dominant American fast-food brand nationally. Baghdad, Basra and Mosul have no Western burger chain.

Why isn't Iraq in the Big Mac Index?

The Big Mac Index compares the price of one identical product across countries. Iraq has no McDonald's restaurant, so there is no Big Mac to price and The Economist publishes no row for it. We list Iraq with an editorial note explaining the absence instead of a number — see our methodology.

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