First launched in 2018, the iPhone Index is an annual ranking by international e-commerce platform Picodi, published with each new Apple release. The index compares the official price of iPhones in various countries with the average income reported by national statistics agencies. It then calculates how many working days (based on 21 days per month) are needed to buy the latest iPhone.
Vietnam made its debut on the iPhone Index in 2023 after the launch of Apple’s Online Store in the country.
This year, to purchase the iPhone 16 Pro (128GB), the average Vietnamese worker needs to save up for 53.1 working days—equivalent to about 2.5 months’ salary. This places Vietnam 4th among countries where workers must work the longest to afford the new iPhone. In comparison, last year, it took 55.6 working days for Vietnamese workers to afford the iPhone.
Ranking of the number of working days needed to own the 128GB version of iPhone 16 Pro (Source: Picodi)
However, according to the General Statistics Office, the average monthly income in Vietnam for the first half of 2023 was 7.5 million VND. With the iPhone 16 Pro priced at 28.99 million VND, Vietnamese workers may actually need around 81 working days—nearly four months’ salary—to afford the device.
At the top of the list is Turkey, where workers need 72.9 working days to buy the iPhone 16 Pro. This is followed by the Philippines (68.8 days) and Brazil (68.6 days).
On the other end of the spectrum, workers in Switzerland need only 4 days to afford the new iPhone. The US comes in at 5.1 days, while Australia and Singapore both require 5.7 days, and Luxembourg 6.1 days.