Turks pay most for housing: Poll

Housing expenses had the largest share in Turkish people's total budgets at 24.8 percent in 2014, followed by food and non-alcoholic drink expenditures at around 19.7 percent, according to the Household Budget Survey 2014, the results of which was released by the Turkish Statistics Agency (TÜ?K) on Nov. 17. 

Surveyed households spent only 2.1 percent of their budget incomes on health expenditures and 2.4 percent for educational purposes, the survey reported. 

The survey has also indicated significant differences in the consumption tendencies of a total of 12 geographical areas. Istanbulites allocated the largest share to housing expenditures in 2014, spending around 28.9 percent of their incomes on these items, followed by health, educational, entertainment and cultural expenses as well as restaurant and hotel expenses. Istanbul ranked at the bottom of the list of largest food shoppers across Turkey. 

The smallest percent of money spent on housing was found to be in the central eastern Anatolian region. The smallest amount spent on transportation was in the eastern Black Sea region, while the smallest amount spent on educational, entertainment and cultural activities was in the southeastern region last year. 

The survey also showed southeastern Anatolian households spent the most on food and non-alcoholic beverages with 26 percent, while Western Anatolian households spent the most on transportation with 19.6 percent. 

While the largest amount of money spent on tobacco products and alcoholic beverages was in the western Marmara region last year, the smallest amount of money in this sector was spent in Istanbul, according to the TÜ?K survey.

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