How long must Central Asians work to afford iPhone 17 Pro?
The cost of an upgrade comes back into focus at Apple’s annual presentation on 9 September. Ahead of the event, Kursiv Uzbekistan looked at how the current iPhone 17 Pro’s price compares with average net salaries across Central Asia, only to find that the numbers really do tell a story.
That’s the difference between about two and a half monthly salaries in Kazakhstan and nearly ten in Turkmenistan — before spending a dime on food, housing or other essentials.
Kazakhstan offers the shortest route to an iPhone
Kursiv used the listed local price of an iPhone 17 Pro with 256GB of storage, launched in the US at $1,099. The average monthly net salary reported by Numbeo was divided by 21 working days to estimate daily earnings.
| Country | Average net monthly salary | Estimated daily pay | iPhone 17 Pro price | Workdays required |
| Kazakhstan | KZT 307,757 ($675) | KZT 14,655 ($32.16) | KZT 811,990 ($1,782) | 55 |
| Uzbekistan | UZS 6,092,085 ($516) | UZS 290,099 ($24.56) | UZS 18,699,000 ($1,583) | 65 |
| Kyrgyzstan | KGS 40,470 ($463) | KGS 1,927 ($22.03) | KGS 129,900 ($1,485) | 67 |
| Tajikistan | TJS 4,196 ($454) | TJS 199.79 ($21.62) | TJS 14,799 ($1,602) | 74 |
| Turkmenistan | TMT 2,300 ($657) | TMT 109.52 ($31.29) | TMT 22,678 ($6,479) | 207 |
The calculation fills a regional gap in a recent Visual Capitalist ranking, which covered 33 countries but none in Central Asia. Its underlying Tenscope index found that the phone costs three workdays in Luxembourg and Switzerland, compared with 160 in India.
Read more: Uzbekistan’s national median offered salary dipped in early 2026
Why these figures are estimates
Comparable 2026 median-wage data are not available across all five countries. Kazakhstan’s statistics bureau estimated the country’s median monthly wage at KZT 348,415 in the second quarter, but that is a nominal wage rather than take-home pay.
Uzbekistan has a median figure for advertised vacancies, but the number does not measure what workers actually receive. The National Statistics Committee instead reported an average nominal salary of UZS 7.09 million in the first half of 2026.
The Central Asian figures should also not be treated as a direct extension of Visual Capitalist’s ranking. Tenscope used the US price and International Labour Organization wage and working-hours data, while Kursiv used current local prices and estimated take-home pay.
Read more: How to bring a new phone into Uzbekistan
Even so, the comparison shows the scale of the purchasing-power gap. Uzbekistan’s 65-day result is close to Thailand’s 61 days in the global table, while Turkmenistan’s estimate exceeds India’s 160-day figure under the separate methodology.
