Istanbul has highest income inequality in Turkey

ANKARA

Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, had the highest income inequality in 2017, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Sept. 24.

The Gini coefficient is one of the measures of inequality. It varies between 0, which reflects complete equality, and 1, which indicates complete inequality.

According to TÜİK’s latest income and living conditions survey, the Gini coefficient for Istanbul, the country’s business, financial and commercial center, was 0.443 last year. Other regions with the highest Gini coefficient was the region including the southern provinces of Adana and Mersin (0.392) and the region including the western province of İzmir (0.387), the country’s third largest city in terms of population.

The Gini coefficient was 0.405 for Turkey in 2017 whereas the lowest value was in the region including the eastern provinces of Erzurum, Erzincan and Bayburt with 0.290.

The data also showed the income of the richest quintile was 7.5 times higher than the income of the poorest quintile for Turkey last year.

The corresponding figure was 8.2 for Istanbul and 6.8 for İzmir and 7.1 for the region that includes the provinces of Adana and Mersin.

In 2017, the annual average equivalised household disposable income in Turkey was 21,577 Turkish Liras ($3,467).

Istanbul was the region with the highest annual average equivalised household disposable income with 30,895 liras, followed by the capital Ankara (26,679 liras) and the region including the western provinces of Tekirdağ, Edirne and Kırklareli provinces with (26,213 liras).