Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Economist was founded in 1843 by Scottish economist and businessman James Wilson to advocate for the repeal of Britain's Corn Laws, a system of import tariffs in place since 1815. Wilson published a prospectus on the 5th of August 1843 outlining thirteen areas of coverage, all grounded in free-trade principles.
The Economist publishes articles without bylines so that the paper can speak with a single collective voice rather than as a collection of individual journalists. The editors have stated that "collective voice and personality matter more than the identities of individual journalists." The only signed piece an editor writes during their tenure is the farewell article on leaving the position.
The Economist is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Economist Group. Major shareholders include the Agnelli family's investment company Exor, which raised its stake to 43.4% in August 2015 after buying Pearson's 50% shareholding for £469 million. Rothschild holds 21%, and Cadbury, Schroder, Layton, and staff shareholders hold smaller stakes. In March 2026, Canadian businessman Stephen J.R. Smith acquired a 26.9% stake formerly held by Lynn Forester de Rothschild.
The Big Mac Index is a measure of purchasing-power parity across currencies, using the price of a McDonald's hamburger in different countries as a benchmark. The Economist first published it in 1986 and has released it twice a year since 2006.
As of September 2025, The Economist's combined print and digital circulation was reported at 1.255 million. On a weekly average basis the paper can reach up to 5.1 million readers across print and digital formats, and it reaches 35 million across social media platforms as of 2016.
Iran banned The Economist on the 15th of June 2006 after the paper published a map labelling the Persian Gulf simply as "Gulf." Vietnam banned the 24th of May 2025 issue featuring President To Lam. Zimbabwe imprisoned the paper's correspondent Andrew Meldrum on a charge of publishing untruth; he was acquitted but deported. The Missouri Department of Corrections also censored a June 2013 issue, barring prisoners from receiving it.