Regional income deficit still looming

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

A poor laborer in Turkey’s southeast region of Diyarbakır, where the majority of the lower income earners are located, is struggling to make ends meet. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK

A recent study by the country’s statistics institute has revealed large income inequality between Turkey’s industrialized northwest and its less developed southeastern provinces. 

The average annual income of Turkish households was calculated at 22,063 Turkish Liras in 2010 and the average income per individual at 9,735 liras, according to a report released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) yesterday.

When examined on a regional basis, Istanbul had the highest average annual individual disposable income at 13,382 liras. Western Anatolia was next with 11,116 liras, while Turkey’s southeastern region lagged significantly behind with 5,144 liras per household. 

The income of Turkey’s top earning households was eight-fold higher than the income of Turkey’s lowest earning households in 2010, according to the report. 

TÜİK examined wages and salaries followed by social transfers and entrepreneurial income as a percentage of total household income when calculating the results.

The study divided the population into five income groups with 20 percent each. 

In 2010, people in Turkey’s top 20 percent income bracket were 8.5 times better off than the 20 percent which existed in the bottom income bracket, marking a 0.5 percent improvement last year. 

The at-risk-of-poverty rate was calculated at 16.9 percent for the total population. The at-persistent-risk-of poverty rate currently stands at 18 percent, according to the TÜİK figures. These percentages are results of four-year panel data.
Some 87.5 percent of the population cannot afford a one week holiday annually while 65.7 percent cannot pay for “unexpected expenditures,” the study said.