Towards a caste system: wealth clusters in the minority

Economy Service

While wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small minority, millions of citizens are forced to live with the risk of poverty and social exclusion. Turkey, which has the highest income inequality among European countries, is also the country with the fastest increase in the number of dollar millionaires. This picture reveals that the economic policies of the government work in favour of capital.

In Turkey, where purchasing power is gradually eroding and a handful of minorities are adding to their wealth while large segments of the population are condemned to poverty, the balance in income distribution is deteriorating. As the scales of income distribution become heavier in favour of the rich, justice is being destroyed more and more every day. Turkey has become a candidate for ‘world leadership’ in this field. Citizens, oppressed under the weight of indirect taxes, pay high taxes even on basic consumption products, while those in the high-income group maintain their wealth.

Deep inequality did not suddenly appear in the country. The result of the economic policies implemented, the austerity plans undertaken in consultation with the IMF, and the program of the Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek, where the bill was cut to those who earn less, not more, pushed the country further into poverty. The picture worsened with each passing day. While one out of every three people in Turkey faces the risk of poverty and social exclusion, the majority do not even have 100 liras in their bank accounts.

The current Risk Centre report of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) also revealed the serious level of injustice. Accordingly, 79 percent of the total balance of deposit accounts in the country is held by 1 percent. 83 percent of the existing bank accounts in the country consist of accounts with a balance of up to 10 thousand liras. 166 million accounts have a total balance of 132.7 billion liras. The share of accounts of 10 thousand liras, which constitute 83 percent, in total deposits is not even 1 percent. This ratio stands at 0.6 percent for accounts.

The balance rate in “loaded” accounts, on the other hand, reaches gigantic dimensions. The total balance of 2.2 million accounts with balances above TL 1 million is TL 16.2 trillion.

According to the calculations of Alaattin Aktaş from Ekonomim, the share of accounts with a balance of 1 million liras or more in the number of accounts is only 1.1 percent, while the share of these accounts in total deposits reaches 78.8 percent. The average deposit of 166 million account holders with less than ten thousand liras in their accounts is as low as 799 liras. On the other hand, the average deposit of 2.2 million people with more than 1 million liras in their accounts was calculated as 7.2 million liras.

THE RICHEST

All kinds of data have confirmed income inequality.

The share of the richest 1 percent in Turkey's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 14.6 percent, compared to 7.4 percent in Bulgaria, which follows Turkey in Europe. In other words, one seventh of the total income generated in Turkey goes to a minority of only one thousandth.

This injustice is not only reflected in GDP data. According to TurkStat data, the richest 10 percent pocket 39.2 liras out of every 100 liras in the country, while the share of the poorest 20 percent in total income is only 6.3 liras. Moreover, the richest 20 percent receive 48.1 percent of total income, almost half of the total income.

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DEPRIVED OF THE BASIC

Pensioners, whose salaries are raised to miserable levels, and senior citizens, whose labour force is exploited for low wages, are going to the bottom of poverty.

According to the results of the Deep Poverty Network's research on elderly poverty, 9 million 112 thousand people in the country's population, aged 65 and over, qualify as elderly. While the elderly in the country are constantly impoverished, they are engaged in hard labour and are killed in labour murders. The research, while revealing the dimensions of the elderly poor, also drew attention to data from TurkStat, OECD and Eurostat.

In 2024, 23.3 percent of the elderly were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The number of elderly poor has increased continuously in 3 years. According to Eurostat data, this rate was 28.8 percent, while ten years ago it was 18.7 percent. Even in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, elderly poverty was lower than today at 23.5 percent. In Turkey, 22 out of every 100 elderly people spend the rest days of their lives struggling with poverty. In 2019, this rate was calculated as 19 out of 100.

Forced to struggle with poverty, the elderly spend their days working or waiting in queues for jobs. Only in the first 6 months of the year, 9 thousand 442 people aged 60 and over were found to be employed through İŞKUR. There are 28 thousand elderly people registered with İŞKUR waiting to find a job.

Turkey, whose elderly people are struggling with poverty, is the 5th country in OECD countries with the highest income inequality in the population over the age of 65. Social support and care services for senior citizens are also ineffective. According to the Deep Poverty Network report, at least 1 elderly person lives in every 4 households, while 1.75 million elderly people live alone.

“Increases in salaries and benefits are insufficient to cover basic living expenses, considering high inflation and housing rents, especially in metropolitan areas,” the report said, underlining that about 4 out of every 5 elderly people aged 65 and over have chronic diseases. Despite the existence of approximately 1.5 million elderly people in need of care and nearly 1 million renters, according to data from the Ministry of Family and Social Services, the number of elderly care facilities in Turkey as of December 2024 was only 505, leaving the total number of elderly people receiving care in these facilities at 30,668. Pushed into poverty, elderly citizens were even denied the right to housing.

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MILLION DOLLARS INCREASED

While low-income earners continue to sink deeper in debt, a handful of rich people have added to their fortunes. The Union Bank of Switzerland's (UBS) Global Wealth Report 2025, published last month, revealed the unbalanced distribution of wealth in the country. According to the report, Turkey was the country with the highest decline in local currency wealth, but the rich multiplied their wealth. The country became the world leader in dollar millionaire ranking. According to the report, Turkey became the country with the highest increase in the number of dollar millionaires. The number of dollar millionaires, which was 61 thousand in the previous year, reached 68 thousand in the year analysed by the report. While the wealth per adult in the country declined by 14 percent in a year, the rich minority added to their earnings with real estate, gold, foreign currency and interest.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Servet azınlıkta kümeleniyor, published in BirGün newspaper on July 22, 2025.