Income and wealth percentile in Turkey

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.