iPhone Index 2022: how many days do we need to afford Apple’s newest flagship?

This is an archived report. The latest ranking is available here.

For the fifth time, the Picodi.com team juxtaposed the local iPhone 14 Pro (128 GB) prices with average earnings in different countries and calculated the iPhone Index, which is the price of the smartphone expressed in man-days.

In South Africa, the iPhone 14 Pro in its base version (128 GB) was priced at R25,699. Although the price in the USA is $999, it is worth noting, that this is the net price, valid only in four states where the sales tax is 0%.

According to the latest Stats SA data, the average wage in South Africa is R23,502 gross (R20,089 net). This means that an average South African has to work for 26.9 days in order to purchase the iPhone 14 Pro, provided that all the money earned is saved for this purpose. Compared to the previous year, the number of days required increased by 4.5 days.

This is what iPhone Index looked like in South Africa in the last 5 years:

• 2018 – 26.9 days
• 2019 – 17.6 days
• 2020 – 25.5 days
• 2021 – 22.4 days
• 2022 – 26.9 days

In Egypt, the newest iPhone 14 Pro costs 45,000 EGP, which means that Egyptian, who earns the average wage of 4,291 EGP net monthly has to work for 220.2 days in order to be able to afford it. This is 68.7 days more than last year.

In Kenya, Apple’s newest flagship costs KSh 195,000. After juxtaposing it with the average wage of KSh 53,828 net monthly, it turns out that an average Kenyan needs 76.1 workdays to purchase the iPhone, provided that all the income is saved for this purpose.

An average citizen of Switzerland will earn money for the newest iPhone the quickest – only 4.6 days. An average American will be able to afford the latest gadget after working for 5.7 days, and Australian – after 6.1 days.

Among the countries included in the ranking, the worst result was noted in Nigeria, where the iPhone is worth 302.9 man-days. The second and third worst result belongs to Pakistan and Egypt – 273.4 and 220.2 days respectively.

Although the new iPhone can be a rather expensive gadget, it is possible to buy it cheaper through official resellers. All you have to do is sign up to Picodi.com and activate cashback while shopping in stores such as Ubuy, Loot and Amazon.

Methodology and sources

iPhone Index is an annual iPhone price to the average wage ratio, carried out by Picodi.com since 2018.

iPhone Index 2022 was calculated based on the official prices of the iPhone 14 Pro (with 128 GB of memory) presented either by the local branches of Apple or by the authorised sellers. The average wages were taken from the countries’ official statistics office websites and are up-to-date with the prices of the iPhone published in each country. Net wages were obtained through salary calculators. Monthly wages were divided by 21 – an average number of workdays in a month. In countries, where statistics offices use weekly rates, the wages were divided by 5.

Public use

The data presented in the ‘iPhone Index’, including the infographics, can be used freely both 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.