Turkey ranked below every European Union country on a key measure meant to reflect household living standards, according to new data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Wednesday, Turkish Minute reported.
The institute said Turkey’s “actual individual consumption” per person index was 71 in 2024, with the European Union average set at 100. That put Turkey 29 percent below the European Union average on the measure.
Actual individual consumption is used in European comparisons as a proxy for material standards of living. It counts goods and services households buy plus services provided to households by the state or nonprofit groups, such as health care and education.
TurkStat said the results were produced using calculations by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, under the European Comparison Programme run with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OSCE).
The comparison covers 36 countries: the 27 European Union members plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway as well as EU candidate countries Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Luxembourg ranked highest on the actual individual consumption measure with 146 while Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked lowest with 42, the institute said. Turkey ranked 31st of 36.
TurkStat also reported Turkey’s gross domestic product per person index, adjusted for purchasing power, at 72, meaning 28 percent below the European Union average. Purchasing power parities are conversion rates used to compare the volume of economies and standards of living across countries by accounting for differences in price levels.
Turkey’s price level index for actual individual consumption was 51, the institute said. It said that means a basket of goods and services that costs 100 euros across the European Union average could be purchased for 51 euros in Turkey under the purchasing power comparison.
Economists and opposition politicians have long questioned the credibility of the TurkStat’s price data, saying official figures do not match the cost increases many households report in daily life. Critics argue that the gap matters because price assumptions shape how people interpret comparisons based on purchasing power, especially during a period of high inflation and wage pressure in Turkey.
