Income in Turkey
The median income in Turkey is about $28 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 82% of everyone alive. Half of Turkey lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 4% of Turkey.
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The curve
Daily income per person, log scale, PPP dollars — the same curve the machine walks you across.
What it takes to stand where
Take-home income per person, in today's TRY, at each point on the curve of Turkey (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Turkey | TRY 72,875 | $11 |
| 25% of Turkey | TRY 111,064 | $17 |
| 50% of Turkey | TRY 180,120 | $28 |
| 75% of Turkey | TRY 295,002 | $46 |
| 90% of Turkey | TRY 471,304 | $74 |
| 99% of Turkey | TRY 1,887,125 | $297 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Turkey
How much of Turkey and of the world lives on each of four income levels. The cuts are the World Bank's $3.00 (international poverty line) and $8.30 (upper-middle-income line), both 2021 PPP; the top cut, $33, is the machine's own, four times the $8.30 line. The objects are what an income on each level tends to buy across the world's surveys — not a description of any one country.
| Level | per day (PPP $) | What tends to come with it, worldwide | Turkey | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | <1% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 4% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 54% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 42% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayTurkey <1% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayTurkey 4% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayTurkey 54% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayTurkey 42% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 54% of Turkey lives on Level 3, between $8.30 and $33 a day per person; worldwide, about 32% of people do.
The line that moved
In Turkey, 10% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1994 survey; under 1% at the 2023 one — a fall of 9 points in 29 years.
Share of Turkey under $3.00 a day (2021 prices) at each national survey, World Bank PIP via Our World in Data; the faint line is the world's.
Worldwide, the share under the World Bank's $3.00-a-day line fell from about 43% in 1990 to about 10% today (Our World in Data; the latest years are the Bank's nowcast). Where the lift came, it came the unglamorous way: wages, harvests, workshops.
Who earns what in Turkey
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Turkey.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a tea-field worker on the Black Sea coast |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a market porter in Istanbul — the whole bazaar on his back |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a textile machinist in Bursa |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a shopkeeper — çay for every customer, always |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a schoolteacher |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a civil engineer — the skyline is half theirs |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a private-hospital doctor |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of an exporting industrialist — from Anatolia to every continent |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Turkey (survey year 2023), in 2021 PPP dollars; incomes typed in today's money are deflated to 2021 prices with the national CPI and converted with the 2021 consumption-PPP factor. Snapshot fetched September 2026. Full methodology & honesty rules.
Neighbours on the curve
The countries whose median income sits nearest to Turkey's — and a few far from it, for scale.