Turkey Archives - Pension Policy International

07AprApril 7, 2025

Turkey. Fast aging population in agriculture threatens food security

The aging population in Türkiye’s agriculture is posing a risk to the country’s food security, Union of Turkish Agricultural Chambers (TZOB) President Şemsi Bayraktar has warned, calling for urgent action to lure the young population into the industry. The average age of farmers rose to 59 last year with the average being 58 for men and 61 for women, Bayraktar said. Some 35 percent of them are over 65 years old, and another 35 percent are between the ages of 50 and 64,...

April 7, 2025

News, SliderAging, Turkey

04AprApril 4, 2025

Türkiye takes measures to boost birth rate as demographic crisis looms

The Turkish government is taking significant steps to counteract a troubling demographic decline, introducing numerous incentives aimed at reversing the falling birth rate. Türkiye has declared 2025 the "Year of the Family," an initiative designed to promote childbirth, while its Ministry of Family and Social Services has unveiled a comprehensive program intended to support working mothers, which includes establishing public nurseries and kindergartens to facilitate childcare. The country's birth rate has steadily declined for years, reaching a low of 958,000 births...

April 4, 2025

News, SliderAging, Turkey

13JanJanuary 13, 2025

Turkish Parliament set to discuss new bills, pensions

Parliament’s General Assembly will resume its weekly work on Tuesday with an agenda dominated by draft bills and a debate on pensions. Lawmakers will discuss the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) bill for the establishment of the Turkish Justice Academy, an educational institution first of its kind for intra-judiciary training. The bill proposes the eligibility of judges and prosecutors with at least an eight-year career in the profession for assignment to the academy. The academy will also host...

January 13, 2025

News, SliderRegulation, Turkey

21OctOctober 21, 2024

Reform for Turkish pension system urged amid inflation, early retirement, population aging

Amidst the high cost of living, a culture of early retirement, and a demographic outlook featuring population aging and a low birth rate, Türkiye's pension system is under great pressure and requires urgent reforms, experts have said. According to the state-managed Social Security Institution (SGK), some 16.4 million people receive retirement and old-age pensions in Türkiye, a country with a population of over 85 million. However, as data from Türkiye's Retirees Association showed, about one-fourth of all those retirees continue to...

October 21, 2024

NewsPension Reform, Turkey

04OctOctober 4, 2024

Labor Market Gender Gaps in Türkiye: A Bird’s Eye View

By Silvia Domit & Damla Kesimal Despite recent improvements, Türkiye’s low female labor force participation and high share of informal female workers stand out internationally. Closing these gender gaps would boost medium-term growth and make it more inclusive. This paper puts these gaps in an international context, explores their interlinkages with fiscal policies, and identifies policy priorities. Source SSRN

October 4, 2024

Articles, Labor Market2024, Gender Gap, Informal Sector, Turkey

07MarMarch 7, 2024

Turkish pensioners have become the poorest in Europe

Pensioners in Turkey rank last in the world in terms of income. In terms of quality of life, only India is ahead of them, writes the Turkish publication Sözcü. As the publication notes, since 2018, Turkey has been steadily declining in the world ranking, the so-called "League of pensioners". The League rating covers 44 countries. Moreover, the average pension in Turkey is called such that it is practically impossible to live on, that is, Turkish pensioners lag behind many other...

March 7, 2024

NewsAdequacy, Turkey

15FebFebruary 15, 2023

75-year-old Iraqi woman donates her pension for Turkey quake victims

In a noble gesture, an elderly Iraqi woman has donated her pension to the earthquake victims in Turkey. The 75-year-old Khorshid Hussein Mohammed lives in Barda Qaraman on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyah, set aside her differences and illness, and made the decision. Khorshid told the media that she was born in 1948 in the village of Bargurdi, Mawat. She said she had to leave her village in 1989 due to oppression by the Baath regime and recalled her time she lived in...

February 15, 2023

NewsIncome, Iraq, Turkey

30DecDecember 30, 2022

Turkey’s president abolishes the retirement age by decree

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the end of the retirement age requirement, which gives over 2 million Turks the possibility of immediately choosing to exercise the right to a pension, according to what was communicated in a press conference yesterday evening. Currently, the retirement age is 58 for women and 60 for men. «With the regulation that we agree with today, about 2.25 million more people will be entitled to retire. No age limit to be entitled to...

December 30, 2022

NewsRetirement Age, Turkey

03MarMarch 3, 2022

The Impacts of Matching Contributions on Retirement Savings: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in Turkey

By Sadettin Haluk Çitçi & Halit Yanikkaya Using a dataset containing information for more than 39 million contracts and a quasi-experimental design provided by national matching contribution policy reform in Turkey, we study the effects of matching contributions on saving outcomes and determine heterogeneities in responses to matching contribution. Differences-in-differences estimations show that the program leads to a substantial rise in contributions paid. The matching contribution policy raises contributions paid by 18 percent. Moreover, after 30 percent sharp rise in...

March 3, 2022

Articles, Savings2022, Behavioral Science, Turkey

01FebFebruary 1, 2022

Turkey’s retirees suffer inflation pain despite pension hike

With soaring inflation in Turkey that has hit all walks of life, the pain of high cost of living is probably felt most by the country's old-age pensioners, despite the promises by the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to "crush the people under exorbitant prices." "I buy fruits and vegetables at closure time in the neighborhood market because of the cheaper price as sellers want to clear their shelves at the end of the day," Faruk Ekmen, a...

February 1, 2022

News, Slider2022, Income, Turkey

April 2025

Turkey. Fast aging population in agriculture threatens food security

Türkiye takes measures to boost birth rate as demographic crisis looms

January 2025

Turkish Parliament set to discuss new bills, pensions

October 2024

Reform for Turkish pension system urged amid inflation, early retirement, population aging

Labor Market Gender Gaps in Türkiye: A Bird’s Eye View

March 2024

Turkish pensioners have become the poorest in Europe

February 2023

75-year-old Iraqi woman donates her pension for Turkey quake victims

December 2022

Turkey’s president abolishes the retirement age by decree

March 2022

The Impacts of Matching Contributions on Retirement Savings: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in Turkey

February 2022

Turkey’s retirees suffer inflation pain despite pension hike