Our preliminary results (2019) are in! You can check them out here:

MDI preliminary results

The Magnum Development Index (MDI) is intended to be an informal way of measuring a country’s economic development and provides an indication of the scale and level of development between different countries.

The index takes its name from Magnum® ice cream, a frozen ice cream desert from Unilever which is sold in various flavors throughout multiple countries.

What sounds more interesting? An economic development index based on abstract industrial output *yawn* or tasty Magnum ice cream! MDI Chief Economist

What does the MDI depict?

The MDI takes cues from the Economist’s Big Mac Index (BMI) in that it indicates a relative economic value of a country and allows comparison of each country on the index. But that is pretty much where the similarities end.

Unlike the BMI, the MDI does not have a quantitative fixing point (the BMI calculates a price in the respective country’s currency), but rather takes a number of criterion into account to give a final estimation. In addition, the MDI does not show the under/overvaluation of a currency, but gives an indication of a country’s economic development on a scale.

And now a few nerdy explanations:

To measure economic development, analysts have typically used the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (including its growth and per capita counterparts), Consumer Price Index (CPI), poverty ratios and combined statistics such as the Human Development Index (HDI) (combination of life expectancy, education and income).

These indicators have been very successful at gauging the development of a country, but there are so many that it may not always be easy to make conclusions. In addition, some very detailed indicators show development on the social side while economic indices tend to be a simple number. Thus there are not many ways of measuring the development based off of a country number like GDP since not every person produces goods (but almost every person has eaten ice cream). The Magnum index makes accurate conclusions on a country’s economic development.

How is the MDI calculated?

There are a number of factors that are taken into account when calculating the development of a country. This allows for the broadest range and the best placement of a country on the developing-developed scale.

The main indicators are:

Learn more about the MDI: