My anecdoticat evidence from even poor European countries suggest phones are renewed quite often (~2years). The horrible manufacturing quality of most modern devices ensures the market for 2nd hand devices stays small, because these things break easily.

To be honest, subjected to a "mildly aggressive & negligent" usage pattern, like mine, even an iphone will barely last more than 3 years and it will be in "far from good" condition after 1 year of usage!

Modern smartphones are simply not built to last unless you take exceptional good care of them. Or maybe it's just that me and the people I know tend to be "exceedingly violent" with our smartphones, dunno...

Personally, 5 of the 6 phones I've used in the last 14 years were still in great condition after the ~2 year contract period that I used them for (plus the one I'm currently using, but I don't get credit for that yet as it's only 4 months old). The one exception got dropped on a bus, and still works fine, but has a cracked but still functional screen.

I think most people are more like me, but there are indeed a non-negligible segment of the population like you (and my sister) who just destroy their phones. Based on everything I've seen, it's definitely more of a you thing than a modern phone thing.

I heard about that in TV some years ago but I don't remember the source. I suppose you can google for it and find the relevant information. I'm not sure if that resesrch included second hand devices but I'm pretty sure exists detailed information on this topic. Edit: typo