Families across Turkey have been grappling with deepening poverty and deteriorating living conditions, the Evrensel daily reported.
According to Evrensel, the Turkish Statistical Institute’s (TurkStat) 2025 report on the family, published on Wednesday, revealed that one in every three families lived in homes with leaking roofs, moldy walls or rotting window frames. A quarter of families lived in extreme poverty, surviving on a monthly income of 9,000 lira (approximately $280). Moreover, millions of young people were postponing marriage and continuing to live with their parents due to their inability to afford living on their own.
TurkStat also linked the country’s declining birth rate directly to worsening poverty. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan previously described the low birth rate as a “disaster,” while the government has framed it as a “national security issue.”
To tackle this declining birth rate the Turkish government declared 2025 the “Year of the Family,” a program aimed at supporting children and promoting traditional family values that centers on heterosexual parents with at least three children.
However, critics argue that the government is falling short in addressing poverty, which is the most pressing challenge facing families. Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Gamze Taşcıer said the so-called “Year of the Family” had instead become the “Year of Poverty, Debt and Despair.”
