Istanbul, Ankara's Çankaya lead Türkiye's socioeconomic ranking
ANKARA
Istanbul hosts the largest share of households in the country’s highest socioeconomic brackets, with the capital Ankara’s Çankaya determined as the district with the highest socioeconomic status, a study by Türkiye’s official statistics office showed on Aug. 18.
For the first time, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) published a socio-economic status score for all of the country’s 26 million households on Aug. 18, using income levels, average years of education and occupation data.
Households were classified into seven categories, ranging from the highest A+ group to the lowest E group.
Nationwide, a very small portion of Turkish households, just 1.1 percent, were placed in the highest socio-economic group, A+.
Around 11 percent fall into the A category, which includes households with above-average income and education.
Households in the upper-lower (B+) and upper-middle (B) groups make up slightly larger shares, with around 16 and 19 percent respectively.
The lower-middle (C+) and lower (C) groups each account for roughly 16 to 18 percent of households, while the lowest tier (E) also includes nearly 16 percent.
This means that the largest portion of households falls into the upper-middle category, highlighting that a significant part of the population is clustered in the mid-range of socio-economic status.
Istanbul is home to nearly 29 percent of all households in the A+ and A categories, making it the city with the largest concentration of Türkiye’s most affluent households.
Ankara follows the megacity with 11 percent, trailed by the western city of İzmir, the northwestern province of Bursa and the southern city of Antalya, respectively.
In the district level, the capital Ankara’s Çankaya district, home to both the parliament building and many lawmakers, stood out with 4.1 percent of Türkiye’s A+ and A households, placing it ahead of districts such as Kadıköy in Istanbul and Yenimahalle in Ankara.
Beşiktaş in Istanbul, Etimesgut in Ankara, Nilüfer in Bursa, Bakırköy in Istanbul and Güzelbahçe in İzmir also ranked among the top districts in terms of socio-economic standing.
By contrast, the lowest scores were recorded in smaller districts such as Çamoluk in the Black Sea city of Giresun and Derebucak in the central city of Konya.
The agency defines socio-economic status as a measure that combines households’ social and economic standing.
Results were published at the provincial and district level, and the calculations incorporated data from 2022, 2023 and 2024, with 2023 serving as the reference year.
