How much time do you need to become a millionaire?

People who have been professionally active for many of years rarely think about how much money they have earned throughout those years. That is why in this study, Picodi.com analysts calculated how many years of work are required to make 1 million dollars in different countries while earning an average wage.

102 countries were included in our ranking. If we sum up all the money an average employee takes home, citizens of Switzerland will earn their first million the fastest – 14 years and 3 months. The second place belongs to Singapore with 16 years and 11 months. Citizens of Luxembourg have to work 5 months more – 17 years and 4 months. The USA and Iceland close out the top 5 with 19 years and 10 months and 20 years and 11 months respectively.

In this ranking, South Africa ranked 38^th – an employee earning the average wage will need 68 years and 3 months to make a million dollars. With this result, South Africa overtook countries such as China (by 10 years), Russia (by 68 years) and Nigeria (by 451 years). On the other hand, workers from Saudi Arabia will earn their first million 27 years faster (28^th – 41 years and 10 months), and there is a 39-year gap between South Africa and the United Kingdom (17^th – 29 years and 9 months).

A million dollars is worth over 500 years of work in Nigeria (519 years and 1 month), Uganda (523 years and 3 months), Egypt (603 years and 6 months) and Pakistan (621 years and 3 months).

As the numbers show, becoming a millionaire in one lifetime might be possible, but definitely hard. However, switching to online shopping can save you money. With Picodi Cashback you will be able to receive some of the money spent back through cashback.

For example, it’s a good idea to do your groceries online in Uber Eats, buy electronics in Loot, book your accomodation at Booking.com, buy various small things from Aliexpress and order cheaper at Ubuy. With Picodi you can save money every day and shorten the road to become a millionaire significantly!

Methodology and sources

The average monthly net wage data comes from Numbeo, where thousands of users worldwide monitor wages through monthly questionnaires. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate data from Google Finance for March 2023.

All data used in this study can be found in a chart here (↓.pdf).

Public use

Both the infographics as well as the statistical data can be used freely for commercial and non-commercial purposes. We only ask you to credit the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage. In case of any questions, feel free to contact us at research@picodi.com.