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Turkey’s per capita income fell further below the European Union average in 2025, even though the country remained one of the cheapest in Europe, according to preliminary purchasing power parity data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Wednesday.
The data, published in TurkStat’s “Purchasing Power Parity, 2025” bulletin, show that Turkey’s GDP per capita index based on purchasing power parity fell from 72 in 2024 to 67 in 2025.
The EU average is set at 100, meaning Turkey moved farther behind the bloc than it was a year earlier.
Purchasing power parities are currency conversion rates that remove price differences between countries. They make it easier to compare how much people produce, earn and consume across different economies.
The figures were calculated under a Eurostat program conducted in cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They cover the 27 EU member states, three European Free Trade Association countries — Switzerland, Iceland and Norway — and six candidate countries: Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Among the 36 countries in the comparison, Luxembourg had the highest GDP per capita index, at 239, followed by Ireland at 238, while Bosnia and Herzegovina had the lowest, at 36. Luxembourg’s GDP per capita was 139 percent above the EU average, while Bosnia and Herzegovina’s was 64 percent below it.
Turkey’s per capita income was also lower than Bulgaria and Greece’s.
Both countries are often used in domestic comparisons because they are geographically close to Turkey and, in Bulgaria’s case, because it has long been one of the EU’s lower-income members. Turkey remained below nearly all EU countries in the ranking, although it was ahead of some candidate countries.
Turkey’s actual individual consumption (AIC) per capita index also fell slightly, from 71 in 2024 to 70 in 2025. Since the EU average is 100, Turkey’s score means people in Turkey consumed 30 percent less than the EU average.
TurkStat said the AIC is a better measure of household welfare because it includes goods and services bought by consumers as well as services provided by governments or nonprofit groups, such as education and healthcare.
Luxembourg again had the highest AIC per capita index, at 145, while Bosnia and Herzegovina had the lowest, at 44. Turkey’s AIC level remained well below the EU average and behind Greece, Bulgaria and Latvia.
The data also showed that Turkey remained cheap compared with much of Europe. Turkey’s price level index for actual individual consumption rose slightly from 51 in 2024 to 52 in 2025.
A price level index below 100 means a country is cheaper than the group average. According to the 2025 preliminary results, a basket of goods and services that costs 100 euros in the 27 EU countries could be bought in Turkey for the equivalent of 52 euros in Turkish lira.
The figures show that although prices in Turkey are low by European standards, people in Turkey earned and consumed less compared with the EU average than they did a year earlier. In other words, cheaper prices do not necessarily mean households can afford more.
The figures come as Turkey continues to face a prolonged cost-of-living crisis. Years of high inflation and a weaker lira have made it harder for workers and retirees to cover daily expenses. Inflation peaked above 75 percent in May 2024 before easing, but price increases have continued to strain household budgets.
It currently stands at around 32 percent.
The decline in Turkey’s relative income and consumption levels also comes amid growing concern about inequality.
A recent report showed that Turkey’s ultra-wealthy population nearly doubled over the past five years, while the richest 20 percent of households earn about eight times as much as the poorest 20 percent, making Turkey one of the more unequal countries in the OECD.