Trends in quality of life – Turkey: 2003–2012

European Quality of Life Survey – EQLS (Eurofound) Luxembourg, 2014
The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

Michaela Gstrein, Petra Rodiga-Laßnig, Claire Wallace, Yilmaz Esmer *

Over the past decade, Turkey has undergone huge economic and social change. This report uses Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey to capture changes and developments in the quality of life of Turkish people, measured at three periods over the past decade: 2003, 2007 and 2012. The report examines the key improvements in quality of life over this period and investigates whether all social groups benefited equally. It explores the impact of recent policy changes and charts new expectations that may be emerging in Turkey. It finds that people in Turkey became much more satisfied with their lives over the period; they overtook the EU average in terms of satisfaction with health services and self- assessed health; poverty and material deprivation diminished. However, Turkey has a very high proportion of early school leavers, and gender inequality remains stark.

* Michaela Gstrein, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria; Petra Rodiga-Laßnig, Institute for Advanced Studies, Carinthia, Austria; Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen, Scotland; and Yilmaz Esmer, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey.

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