IPA: The Share of Pension Income in Total Earnings Decreases from 18.3% to 15.6%

According to research, the number of retirees in Turkey increased by 85.3% between 2009 and 2024, while the share of retirement salaries within total income decreased by 2.7%, falling from 18.3% to 15.6%.
The study stated:
"In the last 10 years, the deterioration in income distribution in Istanbul has been more significant compared to Turkey as a whole.
When looking at household disposable income, Turkey's Gini coefficient was 0.379 in 2014; by 2024, this figure had risen by 0.039 points to 0.418. For Istanbul, the Gini coefficient was 0.357 in 2014, and it increased by 0.071 points to 0.428 in 2024. The Gini coefficient indicates more equality in income distribution as it approaches zero and more inequality as it approaches one.
Over the last 10 years, the group with the least income increase has been the poorest 20%.
When examining Istanbul's households ranked by disposable income, since 2014, the group with the least average income increase has been the poorest 20% income group, while the group with the highest average income increase has been the highest 20% income group. Over the past 10 years, the average income of the poorest 20% group has increased 10.8 times, while the average income of the highest 20% group has increased 14.5 times.
Since 2014 in Turkey, the group with the least average income increase has been the poorest 20% income group, and the group with the highest average income increase has been the highest 20% income group. The average income of the poorest 20% group has increased 10.7 times over the last 10 years, while the average income of the highest 20% group has increased 12.6 times.
In Istanbul, the ratio of the share of the highest earning 10% to the share of the poorest 10% has increased from 9 times to 14 times over the past 10 years. The P90/P10 ratio, calculated as the share of the highest 10% of income earners to the share of the lowest 10%, was 9.25 in Istanbul in 2014 and increased to 13.91 by 2024.
The number of poor people in Istanbul is estimated at 2 million 756 thousand. According to TÜİK's 2024 "Poverty and Living Conditions Statistics" bulletin, based on a poverty threshold determined by considering 60% of the equivalent household disposable median income at the regional level, the number of poor individuals in Istanbul is calculated to be 2 million 756 thousand.
Housing costs pose a burden for poor individuals. According to the TÜİK Income Distribution and Living Conditions Survey, the proportion of individuals below the poverty threshold, determined at 60% of the equivalent household disposable median income, reporting that housing costs are a burden increased from 88.9% to 93.8% between 2021 and 2024. During the same period, the increase in the Consumer Price Index for the "Housing" category was recorded as 423.7% since the beginning of 2021.
In Turkey, 23 out of 100 elderly individuals are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The proportion of those at risk of poverty or social exclusion stands at 29.3%. Between 2021 and 2024, it was observed that this rate decreased for age groups 0-17 and 18-64, while it increased for those aged 65 and over. In 2021, 17 out of 100 elderly individuals in Turkey were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, while by 2024 this number increased to 23 out of 100 elderly individuals."