Turkey becomes only country with declining household income in Europe

Duvar English

Turkey ranks at the bottom ranks of Europe both in terms of purchasing power standards and in disposable income in 2022, according to EuroStat as reported by the Euronews Turkish.

A stark contrast emerges when comparing the mean annual equivalised household disposable income in euros across Europe, Turkish households averaged a mere €2,752 per year and ranked second to last among 36 countries. 

The mean annual equivalised household disposable income is the average amount of money available for spending or saving per person in a household after taxes and other deductions, adjusted for household size.

The average income for the entire EU in 2022 was €19,830 while Luxembourg stands out as the first with €45,310 per household and Albania languishes at the bottom with households scraping by on an average of €2,523. 

Turkey was also the only country where household income fell. Between 2016 and 2021, income in Turkey fell by one thousand euros (27 percent).

The government-run Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has reported the mean annual household disposable income as 98,416 Turkish lira (€3,235) in 2022 while the mean annual equivalised household disposable income was 48,642 liras (€1,599).

According to purchasing power (PPS), individual household income in 2022 was 6,210 in Turkey while its was 18,706 in the European Union (EU). Luxembourg ranked first in the list of the highest disposable household income in Europe with 33,214, while Turkey ranked third from last and Albania ranked last with 4,385.

PPS, a kind of artificial currency that eliminates price level differences across countries, enables a single PPS to purchase the same good or service in any country.

As the depreciation of lira and cost of living crisis has been continuing for several years, many lower-class family's income also lessened due to raging taxes, including income tax, that government introduced as a way out the solve economic problems.