[TR1] Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT)

Income and Living Conditions Statistics Group

Necatibey Street Number: 114 06420 Çankaya /ANKARA /TÜRKİYE

6 November 2025

6 November 2025

24 November 2025

The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is a survey-based instrument aiming at collecting timely and comparable cross-sectional and longitudinal multidimensional microdata on income, poverty, social exclusion and living conditions. In addition, it collects module variables every three years, six years or ad-hoc new policy needs modules.

The EU-SILC instrument provides two types of data:

• Cross-sectional data pertaining to a given time or a certain time period with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions;
• Longitudinal data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, observed periodically over four‐or more year rotation scheme (Annex III (2) of 2019/1700).

Social exclusion and housing condition information is collected mainly at household level while labour, education and health information is obtained for persons aged 16 and over. The core of the instrument is income information at very detailed component level and mainly collected at personal level.

• International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED'2011);
• International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08);
• Classification of Economic Activities (NACE Rev.2-2008);
• Common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 2);
• SCL - Geographical code list;
• The recommendations made by the United Nations in the Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics should also be taken into account.

For more details on the classification used please, see the list of classification on the Eurostat webpage, Metadata and Statistics explained on classification.

Data refer to all private households and individuals living in the private households in the national territory at the time of data collection.

The EU-SILC survey is a key instrument for the European Semester and the European Pillar of Social Rights, providing information on income distribution, poverty and social exclusion, as well as various related living conditions and poverty EU policies, such as on child poverty, access to health care and other services, housing, over indebtedness and quality of life. It is also the main source of data for microsimulation purposes and flash estimates of income distribution and poverty rates.

Statistical concepts and definitions for EU-SILC are specified in Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2181, and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2242. Additional information is available in the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) methodology and in the methodological guidelines and description of EU-SILC target variables (see CIRCABC).

Further details are provided in items 5, 15.1.1.1, 15.2.2 and 18.3.

Statistical units are private households and all persons living in these households who have usual residence in the Member State. Annex II of the Commission implementing regulation (EU) 2019/2242 defines specific statistical units per variable and specifies the, content of the quality reports on the organization of a sample survey in the income and living conditions domain pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

The target population is private households and all persons composing these households having their usual residence in the Member State. Private household means a person living alone or a group of persons who live together, providing oneself or themselves with the essentials of living.

Definitions of reference population, household and household membership

The sub-populations that are not covered by the data collection includes: those who moved out of the country’s territory; or those with no usual residence; or those living in institutions or who have moved to an institution compared to the previous year.

The entire territory of the Republic of Türkiye was included in the scope of the survey, covering all settlements within national borders.

2006-2024

SILC has been implemented in Türkiye every year, since 2006.

Not applicable.

The data involves several units of measure depending upon the variables. Income variables are transmitted to Eurostat in national currency. For more information, see methodological guidelines and description of EU-SILC target variables available on CIRCABC

Description of reference period used for incomes

Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 was publish in OJ on 10 October 2019, establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples (IESS). The Annex to the Commission implementing regulation (EU) 2019/2180 of 16 December 2019 specifies the detailed arrangements and content for the quality reports pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EU) 2019/2242.

Confidential microdata are not disclosed by Eurostat. Access to confidential microdata for scientific purposes may be granted on the  basis of Commission Regulation 557/2013 and Regulation 223/2009 of  the European Parliament and the Council on European statistics.

EU regulation 2019/2180: Information on ownership of data, indicating the extent to which their unauthorised disclosure could be prejudicial or harmful to the interests of the source or other relevant parties.

Confidentiality policy: description of any provisions in addition to European legislation that are relevant to the statistical confidentiality applied to the data collection, transmission to Eurostat or publication.

EU regulation 2019/2180: Information on ownership of data, indicating the extent to which their unauthorised disclosure could be prejudicial or harmful to the interests of the source or other relevant parties.
Confidentiality – data treatment: a general description of the rules applied to treating microdata and macro data (including tabular data) with regard to statistical confidentiality. Please describe the conditions for data protection and anonymization at the national level.

Official Statistics

Please refer to the Release calendar - Eurostat (europa.eu) publicly available on the Eurostat’s website. In addition please refer to the national calendar of publication.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see section 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity'), respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users. Additional information about microdata access is available in EU-SILC microdata.

Annual

The results of the Income and Living Conditions Survey are announced to the public as a press release in both Turkish and English simultaneously to all interested parties through the TURKSTAT website respectively:

• Income Distribution Statistics 2024
• Poverty and Living Conditions Statistics 2024

In TURKSTAT, EU-SILC results are not published as a publication. Survey results are published as a press release and micro data only.

TURKSTAT provides access and usage facility for the micro data of survey and researches in accordance with the legal legislation based on the national and international researchers demand.

Micro data files comprise individual data for one given statistic, which have been filtered appropriately to achieve anonymous information so as to ensure confidentiality (Regulation of Procedure and Principles of Data Confidentiality and Confident Data Security in Official Statistics).

When using micro data files, any published information including data obtained thereby must quote the TURKSTAT as the primary data source. Furthermore, the level of accuracy or reliability of the information derived by the authors is exclusively their responsibility (Turkish Statistical Institute, Instructions for the Access and Use of Micro Data).

Turkish Statistical Institute, Instructions for the Access and Use of Micro Data came into effect on September 1, 2012 and revised on September 3, 2020, regulating the procedures for micro data access and usage. According to Part 2 Item 5 of Turkish Statistical Institute, Instructions for the Access and Use of Micro Data, the researchers of the following institutions and organizations can access to micro data produced and/or published by the TURKSTAT upon approval of the Presidency on condition that they are used in researches for scientific purpose:

Institutions and organizations covered under the Official Statistics Programme
Other official institutions and organizations in Türkiye
Universities and other higher educational institutions
Research based establishments and institutions
International organizations at which Türkiye is a member
Micro data sets are established from the records in order to reinforce the scientific researches by the Institute. These data sets brought into use upon approval of the Presidency are classified into Group A and B depending on access procedures.

Micro data relating to EU-SILC are published on official website of TURKSTAT without micro data sets. Researchers who meet the criteria defined in the Directive on Access to and Use of Microdata may submit their applications.

No information available

Income and Living Conditions Survey Micro Data Sets (Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal), 2024.
Income and living conditions survey has been conducted within the scope of the studies compliance with European Union (EU) since 2006. The aim of the survey is to supply comparable annual data on income distribution, relative poverty, living conditions and social exclusion. The survey is applied every year regularly and used panel survey method and the sample persons are traced during four years. It is aimed to get two kinds of data set cross-sectional and panel every year.
Related data sets including cross-sectional and 2-year, 3-year and 4-year panel results of Income and Living Conditions Survey contains micro data in the form of CSV format, data guidance, basic indicators and methodological information.

Turkstat website.

Not available

Not applicable

Methodological documentations are available here:

Income Distribution Statistics 

Poverty and Living Conditions Statistics

See Annex 11-Metadata on benefits (from 2018 onwards)

Not applicable

Institutional quality report in national level is available on the TURKSTAT official web site.

2024 Institutional quality report

Not applicable.

Data are accompanied with quality reports analysing the accuracy, coherence and comparability of the data.

The quality of the TR-SILC survey can be assumed to be high. Its concepts and methodology have been developed according toEuropean and international standards and using best practices from all EU Member States. TR-SILC indicators are considered tobe sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes they are put into. The indicators are disseminated following a predetermined Release calendar.

Further work is ongoing to improve the quality and in particular the comparability of the indicators. Key priorities are greater harmonisation of methods for quality adjustment and sampling.

The main users of EU-SILC statistical data are: Eurostat/EU related institutions, policy makers, research institutes, media, students, Eurostat/EU related institutions, other international organizations (IMF, World Bank, OECD, etc.), public institutions/organizations (ministries, other public institutions), local authorities, universities and research institutes, media organizations, individual users.

User needs of statistics are:

• RIP (Official Statistical Program) Working Group Meeting
• Statistical Council meeting
• Joint meetings with other institutions
• Meetings/workshops organized by user organizations
• Examination of information requests
• Publication review (OECD, UN, Eurostat etc.)
• Working groups or direct communication with in-house users
• Examination of international requests (EU acquis, OECD, UN etc.)

Eurostat carried out a general User Satisfaction Survey (USS) to obtain a better understanding of users’ needs and their satisfaction with the services provided by Eurostat. The survey results indicated that EU-SILC data are of very high relevance to users. For the majority of respondents, both aggregated data and microdata were considered important or essential for their work, regardless of the purpose of use. The use of ad-hoc modules was less widespread compared to the use of annual variables. Users also highlighted a strong need for more detailed microdata.

For further information, please consult the Eurostat User Satisfaction Survey.

For further national information, please consult the TurkStat User Satisfaction Survey.  

All target and additional module’s variable in TR-SILC are fully in line with the methodological guidelines (Doc-065 2023 operation year) and the Commission (Eurostat) requirements. Although all target variables for the survey were collected, no field study was conducted on the optional variables in TR application.

These variables are not collected:

DB050, DB060, DB062, DB070, DB080, DB095, DB100, HY145N, RB065, RB066, PB070

100% of requested variables were transmitted

According to Reg. (EU) 2019/1700 Annex II, precision requirements for all data sets are expressed in standard errors and are defined as continuous functions of the actual estimates and of the size of the statistical population in a country or in a NUTS 2 region. For the income and living conditions domain, the estimated standard errors of the following indicators are examined according to certain parameters set:

• · Ratio at‐risk‐of‐poverty or social exclusion to population;
• · Ratio of at‐persistent‐risk‐of‐poverty over four years to population;
• · Ratio at‐risk‐of‐poverty or social exclusion to population in each NUTS 2 region.

Further information is provided in section 13.2 Sampling error.

TURKSTAT is using the Eurostat method.

The concept of accuracy refers to the precision of estimates computed from a sample rather than from the entire population. Accuracy depends on sample size, sampling design effects and structure of the population under study. In addition to that, sampling errors and non-sampling errors need to be taken into account. Sampling error refers to the variability that occurs at random because of the use of a sample rather than a census and non-sampling errors are errors that occur in all phases of the data collection and production process.

Non-sampling errors are basically of 4 types:

• Coverage errors: errors due to divergences existing between the target population and the sampling frame.
• Measurement errors: errors that occur at the time of data collection. There are a number of sources for these errors such as the survey instrument, the information system, the interviewer and the mode of collection.
• Processing errors: errors in post-data-collection processes such as data entry, keying, editing and weighting.
• Non-response errors: errors due to an unsuccessful attempt to obtain the desired information from an eligible unit. Two main types of non-response errors are considered:
  • Unit non-response: refers to absence of information of the whole units (households and/or persons) selected into the sample.
  • Item non-response: refers to the situation where a sample unit has been successfully enumerated, but not all required information has been obtained.

Coverage errors include over-coverage, under-coverage and misclassification:

• Over-coverage: relates either to wrongly classified units that are in fact out of scope, or to units that do not exist in practice.
• Under-coverage: refers to units not included in the sampling frame.
• Misclassification: refers to incorrect classification of units that belong to the target population

Coverage error

not applicable

Measurement error for cross-sectional data

Non-response errors are errors due to an unsuccessful attempt to obtain the desired information from an eligible unit. Two main types of non-response errors are considered:

1) Unit non-response which refers to the absence of information of the whole units (households and/or persons) selected into the sample. According to Annex VI of the Reg.(EU) 2019/2242

• Household non-response rates (NRh) is computed as follows:

NRh=(1-(Ra * Rh)) * 100

Where Ra is the address contact rate defined as:

Ra= Number of address/selected person (including phone, mail if applicable) successfully contacted/Number of valid addresses/selected person (including phone, mail if applicable) selected

and Rh is the proportion of complete household interviews accepted for the database

Rh=Number of household interviews completed and accepted for database/Number of eligible households at contacted addresses (including phone, mail if applicable)

• Individual non-response rates (NRp) is computed as follows:

NRp=(1-(Rp)) * 100

Where Rp is the proportion of complete personal interviews within the households accepted for the database

Rp= Number of personal interview completed/Number of eligible individuals in the households whose interviews were completed and accepted for the database

• Overall individual non-response rates (*NRp) is computed as follows:

*NRp=(1-(Ra * Rh * Rp)) * 100

For those Members States where a sample of persons rather than a sample of households (addresses, phones, mails etc.) was selected, the individual non-response rates will be calculated for ‘the selected respondent.

2) Item non-response which refers to the situation where a sample unit has been successfully enumerated, but not all the required information has been obtained.

Unit non-response rate for cross-sectional

where

A=total (cross-sectional) sample,

B =New sub-sample (new rotational group) introduced for first time in the survey this year,

C= Sub-sample (rotational group) surveyed for last time in the survey this year.

The computation of item non-response is essential to fulfil the precision requirements. Item non-response rate is provided for the main income variables both at household and personal level.

Item non-response which refers to the situation where a sample unit has been successfully enumerated, but not all the required information has been obtained.

Please see TR_2024_Annex 2-Item_non_response_13.3.3.2.1

 Description of data entry, coding controls and the editing system

Not applicable.

The initial results of the TR EU-SILC was announced to the public as a press release same year with the field application applied.

In TURKSTAT, for the EU-SILC first results is equal to final results.

First results for the year of 2024:

•  End of reference period: 26 July 2024
• National publication date: 27 December 2024

The initial results of the TR EU-SILC was announced to the public as a press release same year with the field application applied.

In TURKSTAT, for the EU-SILC first results is equal to final results.

Final results for the year of 2024:

• End of reference period: 26July 2024.
• National publication date: 27 December 2024.

TR- SILC R24 data sets were transmitted to EUROSTAT in March 2025 first time. The validation completed in April 2025.

Time lag between the actual delivery of the data and the target date when it should have been delivered: 0 month

Number of months between the delivery/release date of (national) data and the target date on which they were scheduled for delivery/release: 0 month

Percentage of data release delivered on time: 100%

The coherence of two or more statistical outputs refers to the degree to which the statistical processes, by which they were generated, used the same concepts and harmonized methods. A comparison with external sources for all income target variables and the number of persons who receive income from each ‘income component’ will be provided, where the Member States concerned consider such external data to be sufficiently reliable.

See the TR_2024_Annex 7-Coherence_15.3-15.3.2

Not applicable.

In 2024, there were no breaks in the series that affected the comparability of TR SILC.

See TR_2024_Annex 8-Breaks in series_15.2

The number of reference periods in time series from last break.
Length of comparable time series = 2024 - 2014 + 1 = 11 years

Comparability and deviation from definition for each income variable

F= Fully comparable; L= Largely comparable; P= Partly comparable and NC= Not collected.

The coherence of two or more statistical outputs refers to the degree to which the statistical processes, by which they were generated, used the same concepts and harmonised methods. A comparison with external sources for all income target variables and the number of persons who receive income from each ‘income component’ will be provided, where the Member States concerned consider such external data to be sufficiently reliable.

Not applicable.

Please see “See the TR_2024_Annex 7-Coherence_15.3-15.3.2”.

In 2024, no major coherence issues were identified in the EU-SILC dataset for Turkey. The statistical outputs were produced based on harmonized concepts and methodologies aligned with EU guidelines. Minor discrepancies between EU-SILC results and other administrative sources may stem from differences in data collection periods, reference definitions, or coverage.

Mean (average) interview duration per household =  32.7  minutes.

Mean (average) interview duration per person = 9 minutes.

Mean (average) interview duration for selected respondents (if applicable) =  minutes.

There are no scheduled revisions. Therefore, not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Detailed information concerning sampling frame, sampling design, sampling units, sampling size, weightings and mode of data collection can be found in this section (please see below). Such information is mainly used for the computation of the accuracy measures.

The sampling frame of the first wave households of SILC 2024 was composed by the registers of Address Based Population Register (ABPR) and National Address database.

The sample design of SILC was created by the valuable contributions of Prof. Vijay Verma, University of Sienna. Weighting procedures and the standard error calculations were carried out under the valuable consultation of Prof. Gianni Betti, University of Siena. In the subject of the accuracy, the recommendations of European Union EU SILC guideline were taken into account.

Type of sampling (stratified, multi stage, clustered) design:

The Survey on Income and Living Conditions is an annual survey with a rotational-group design. The sample comprises four independent sub-samples, each of which is a four-year panel. Each subsample is selected as to represent the whole country. Each year, the sample is rotated with one of the panels. The 75% of the sampling size is foreseen to leave in the frame of the panel from one year to another. The aim of this follow-up rule is to reflect the changes in the target population and to analyze longitudinally the conditions and income variables of the individuals over time.

The TR SILC 2023 survey follows a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling, which is also the case of the beginning year (2006) of the survey.

Stratification and sub-stratification criteria:

The 2023 survey is designed to produce estimations on NUTS-2 level.

In order to get homogenous groups in the sample selection, urban-rural information was used in the implicit stratification. In the study, the significant change in the administrative division in 2014 was reflected to the sample allocation of 2023 design. The sample size of 2023 in each NUTS-2 was allocated by taking into account both old and new administrative division so that the control was ensured in the settlements moving from rural to urban. In the allocation, the sample sizes got proportionally to population sizes were weighted by 1.5 in the urban-urban part, by 1.5 in the urban-rural part and by 1 in the rural-rural part. Then the rural-rural cells with 0 size were increased to 1 so that at least 1 cluster was ensured in the rural-rural part. Consequently, even if the urban rural estimations are not planned to produce, this breakdown provided representative homogenous groups for the selection of sample in the design.

As said, the beginning year of TR SILC was 2006. Each year the survey has 4 subsamples, which have the same representative structure. The structure of year 2007 had no difference from the year 2006. The figure below shows the subsample numbers of the years 2006 and 2007.

In the beginning year of TR SILC (2006) the sampling frame of the survey was obtained from Enumeration Listings based on 2000 General Population Census. The blocks (PSU’s), only including the household addresses, were determined from this listing.

By 2007, the sampling frame of the survey is based on Address Based Population Register and National Address Database. The sampling frame of blocks (PSU’s), including the household addresses, was determined from this register. The households are defined in this frame so that in each household belonging to the "National Address Database", at least 1 person is registered in the "Address Based Register System".

Each block constitutes approximately 100 (between 80 and 120) household addresses. “Probability Proportional to Size” (PPS) selection was used for selecting the blocks. The number of household addresses in each block has been defined as the measure of size in the PPS selection.

At the second stage, households (SSU’s) were selected by “systematic selection” from the sampled blocks.

The sampling frame is based on the Address Based Population Register System and National Address Database which was established in 2009. From this linked system, clusters (blocks) involving approximately 100 dwelling addresses (between 80 and 120) are constructed and this blocked list is defined as the sampling frame of the EU-SILC survey. The register system is updated twice in the year. Addresses of the institutional population are not included in the sampling frame.

The income and Living Conditions Survey is carried out regularly each year. Field application is performed between March-July.
Data are collected with CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview Method) system through personal interview with households included in the sample as well as all household members aged 16 and over in the field applications. In order to use the advantages of making computer surveys, interviews are conducted face-to-face with tablet computers.

The field application is carried out by TURKSTAT regional offices by using HARZEMLİ data entry program developed by TURKSTAT by using observation methods and administrative records used together in the data collection of SILC.
Staffs who are called as the interviewer, controller implement the survey. During the field application, field organization units work coordinately with the central organization units. Compilation of data collection and data analysis phases are performed successfully by these units.

Letters and brochures giving information about the survey and its purpose and how and when the application will be done are sent to households before survey implementation.

Mode of data collection

Description of collecting income variables

Checks to detect processing errors have been implemented in the electronic questionnaire. Validation applied during post-data-collection-processing includes formal data checks as well as checks for plausibility and consistency which use longitudinal or external information. Detected errors or inconsistencies are fed back for validation to the interviewer concerned, they are either corrected or approved and can also lead to an adjustment of questions or interviewer guidelines in next year’s survey.

In the process data-entry is a logical control of extreme values, filled-in information on all issues, data comparability checks, links between individual questionnaires and registers is carried out. After processing the primary data and receiving the target changes, a verification with the SAS program provided by Eurostat for verification and validation of the data is performed. Additional compatibility checks are performed before publishing the information.

The format of the data is verified and validated through the check programs provided by Eurostat.

Many external administrative sources of data (unemployment benefits, old-age benefits, survivor's benefits, sickness benefits, disability benefits) are used for checking and validating the data obtained by the respondents. The estimates stemming from national accounts are benchmark's values used to validate SILC estimates.

The "Eurostat Doc-065" document was examined for the “2024 Income and Living Conditions Survey”, the changes and additions in the document were reflected to questionnaire and handbook. After the regional officers were trained, all preparations for the 2024 SILC were completed and the field application was started in February 2024. Currently, SILC 2024 field application and concurrent processing of SAS analyzes are finished.

The survey follows the instructions of the related year EU SILC Operation. Weighting consists of four stages: design weights, non-response adjustment, calibration and trimming. Also, both cross sectional and panel weights are calculated.

Outliers and missing values of interest income are imputed by using SPSS modeler program at the stage of statistical analysis of incomes.

In TURKSTAT, the imputation study for EU-SILC is implemented only for bank interest income by using “IBM SPSS Modeler program”. Accordingly;

Variable Name: Bank interest income
Total Number of Units: 8.159
Number of Imputed Units: 7.520
Rate (%): 92.17

The survey follows the instructions of the related year EU SILC Operation. Weighting consists of four stages: design weights, non-response adjustment, calibration and trimming. Also, both cross sectional and panel weights are calculated.

Outliers and missing values of interest income are imputed by using SPSS modeler program at the stage of statistical analysis of incomes.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See Annex 9 - Rolling module