Istanbul households Turkey’s biggest spenders

ANKARA

Households in Istanbul accounted for 24.4 percent of total consumption expenditures made in Turkey in 2019, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

Households in the Aegean region came second at a 15.1 percent share in total consumption expenditures, followed by the Mediterranean region at 11.4 percent, showed TÜİK’s annual household budget survey.

The country’s northeastern Anatolian region had the smallest share in consumption expenditures at 1.8 percent, while the Central Anatolian region’s share was 2.6 percent, followed by the central east Anatolia region with 2.6 percent and the eastern Black Sea region with 2.9 percent.

TÜİK reported that most of the households’ consumption expenditures across the country went to rent and housing, food and non-alcoholic beverages and transport.

The share of spending on alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

The housing and rent expenditures’ share in households’ budget in Istanbul was 28.6 percent, marking the highest rate in Turkey.

The share of housing and rental expenditures increased from 23.7 percent to 24.1 percent.

The households in the Central Anatolian region allocated 28.5 percent of their budget to food and non-alcoholic beverages, the highest among all regions, while the corresponding rate for households in Istanbul was 15.9 percent.

In the western Black Sea region, households spent some 20 percent of their budget on transport services, making them the largest spender in this category in the country.

Household expenditure on educational services in Istanbul had a 3.7 percent share in their total expenditures, the highest amount in Turkey.

The Marmara region had the largest share in health services expenditures at 2.7 percent while Central Anatolia was at the bottom at 1.2 percent, according to the data.

Turkish people spent 165.2 billion Turkish Liras ($22 billion) on health services in 2018.

While Istanbul allocated the highest share in household consumption expenditures with 3.7 percent for education, the eastern Black Sea region had the lowest share with 0.9 percent.

The annual amount spent on education for each student in the country is twice the OECD average, according to the 2019 educational report previously published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

While the share of entertainment and culture expenditures of citizens had increased from 2.9 percent to 3.1 percent, the share allocated to education services rose from 2.3 percent to 2.5 percent.