Income and wealth percentile in Turkey
a year per adult, before tax; half of adults in Turkey earn less
The wealth ladder in Turkey
The middle adult in Turkey holds ₺1,080,773 in net worth. The top 10% of holders begins at ₺7,397,783 and the top 1% at ₺42,996,552, which is 40 times the middle.
In Turkey the middle adult earns ₺375,650 a year before tax and holds ₺1,080,773 in net worth. The top 10% of earners begins at ₺1,440,831, and the top 1% of wealth at ₺42,996,552. Figures are per adult, in TRY.
Built for Turkey
Calculators and reference pages that answer for Turkey specifically.
Every published line
Income and net worth per adult in Turkey, in TRY.
| The line | Income | Net worth |
|---|---|---|
| Median | ₺375,650 | ₺1,080,773 |
| Average | ₺824,087 | ₺4,504,552 |
| Top 10% | ₺1,440,831 | ₺7,397,783 |
| Top 1% | ₺7,254,934 | ₺42,996,552 |
| Top 0.1% | ₺27,351,493 | ₺249,340,260 |
| Top 0.01% | ₺109,925,332 | ₺1,445,943,049 |
What the numbers say about Turkey
Turkish median income is around ₺375,650 per adult, roughly $11,400 at current exchange rates. The average sits at ₺824,000, well over double the median. The country has lived through one of the steepest currency depreciations any major economy has experienced in peacetime. The lira has lost over 80 percent of its dollar value between 2018 and 2024, with inflation running above 60 percent for most of the past three years. Standard income figures need careful translation.
Real wages have been hit hard, but unevenly. Public-sector wages and minimum-wage workers received aggressive nominal raises that partially compensated for inflation. Private-sector wages outside the export industries lagged. The export sectors (textiles, automotive, white goods, tourism) actually benefited from the cheaper lira, which made Turkish products more competitive in European markets. The result is a sharp split inside the labour market between sectors that benefit from depreciation and sectors that suffer from it. Istanbul professionals saw their dollar-denominated purchasing power fall significantly even as nominal raises looked generous on paper.
Wealth concentration accelerated through the inflation cycle. Median household net worth per adult is around ₺1.08 million, but the average runs at ₺4.5 million. The top 1% threshold for wealth sits above ₺43 million, with the top 0.1% above ₺249 million. Turkish households have responded to lira weakness by moving wealth into dollars, gold, and real estate, which holds value in inflationary periods. The Istanbul property market roughly doubled in dollar terms during the worst of the inflation. The Koç, Sabancı, and Ülker family conglomerates dominate the very top, with diversified holdings in finance, retail, food, and industrial production.
Geography concentrates economic activity in the western third of the country. Istanbul, the wider Marmara region, Izmir, and Bursa hold most of the formal-sector employment, the export industries, and the financial sector. Eastern and southeastern Anatolia (Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Van) run with median incomes well below the national figure, higher youth unemployment, and weaker formal-sector coverage. The Syrian refugee population, around 3.5 million people, is concentrated along the southern border and adds another layer to the regional labour-market picture.
Two themes shape the next decade. The orthodox monetary policy reintroduced in mid-2023 has begun to slow inflation, but real interest rates remain high and growth is decelerating. And the politics of the post-Erdoğan transition, whenever it comes, will determine whether the AKP-era housing and construction boom continues or reverses.
Common questions
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Where do these figures come from?
Nearby by median income
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Method and sources
- World Inequality DatabasePretax national income per adult and net household wealth per adult.
- World Bank Informal Economy DatabaseInformal output as a share of GDP, the input to the level correction.
How the lines are worked out
The national distribution is fitted as a log-normal body with a Pareto top tail and read at each published point, per adult. Where a country’s own records measure less activity than its output implies, the level of the distribution is lifted toward the implied figure and the spread is left as published: that correction is set out in full on how we measure.
How a percentile is read off it
A percentile is the share of adults at or below a figure. The percentile methodology page states the fit, the anchors and the vintage.
What these figures do not cover
- Per adult, not per household. Couples are counted separately, so household figures run higher.
- Income is gross, before income tax and employee contributions.
- Local currency at the reference rate carried with the record, ₺1 = $0.030.
- A national figure says nothing about a region or an occupation inside it.
Last updated July 2026.
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