Who Are the Turks Taking to the Streets in Protest? A Nation on the Move - Living in Apartments, Yet Deeply Rooted in Migration

The "Life Styles research 2025” , which KONDA launched in 2008 and conducted its fifth iteration last year, provides a comprehensive snapshot of the significant societal transformation in Turkey. Marketing Türkiye examines the latest findings from this research under the leadership of KONDA’s Chairman of the Board, Aydın Erdem. Below, I’ve compiled some of the sections that particularly caught my attention:

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Turkey’s X-ray: “Life Styles”

Can There Be a Link Between Natural Gas and Individualization?

Societal values, life styles, and consequently individuals' preferences are changing through a complex algorithm of situations and developments, as seen not only globally but also in Turkey. Factors like internal migration, widespread education, the necessity for women to work, an aging population, social media, and even the spread of natural gas have had a far greater impact on the structure of this society in the last 30 years than politics. For instance, in 2018, the rate of homes without central heating was 42%, but today it has dropped to 21%. Now, three out of four households have natural gas. It’s not difficult to predict how an individual’s ability to spend time in a separate space from their family can affect individualization in society.

Three out of Four People Live in Apartments

The rate of those living in apartments has doubled in the past 16 years, rising from 36% to 72%. However, even in metropolitan areas, 17% still live in detached houses.

Our Gender Inequality: “As If”

The societal perspective on women is one of the fastest-changing indicators of modernization. The proportion of people who believe that women should have equal rights in every area has exceeded 90%.

The proportion of women working as housewives has, for the first time, fallen below 50%. The increase in women’s presence in the workforce, particularly in white-collar jobs¹, is clearly visible in the numbers. Women have managed to achieve this, even though one-third of society still believes they should have their husband's approval to work.

Moreover, the proportion of men doing household chores like cleaning and cooking has also visibly increased. About 25% of men say they frequently or always clean at home, compared to 85% of women. However, when both partners work, there isn’t much change in this scenario.

Increased Use of Household Technology

Ten years ago, in households with conservative men and uneducated women, there would typically be no dishwasher; this was a parameter of patriarchy. Now, 9 out of 10 households have a dishwasher, and nearly one in four has a dryer.

According to the research data, over 7 million households have an air fryer, and more than 4 million households have a kitchen robot. Turkish coffee machines are present in 40% of households.

In 2008, 60% of households had men who occasionally went to kiraathane². Now, that number has decreased to 40%, primarily because of demographic changes. For example, young women have caught up with men in terms of university graduation rates and have started to participate much more actively in public life. As a result, traditional kıraathanes are being replaced by cafes where both men and women spend time together and where people from different social backgrounds meet.

Internal Migration Continues

The proportion of people who have migrated either alone or with their families has increased from one in four to one in three since 2008. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), 230,000 people moved to Istanbul in 2023 alone. On the other hand, 10% of us still live in rural areas, and a quarter of us say we grew up in a village. In short, while we will continue to feel the impact of rural practices and traditional values in our cities for a while, it will gradually decrease, as it has in the past 30 years.

A Tremendous Loss of Qualified Workforce

More than half of the adult population is still not employed. Retirees, the unemployed, housewives, and students make up more than half of the population over 18 years of age.

We have 22% university graduates, but in Germany, this rate is 28%, and in the US, it is 42%. Of Turkey’s 15 million university graduates, one-tenth are job-seeking and still can’t find employment. Another large proportion of university graduates are housewives. Three million of these individuals are under the age of 50.

Life Styles Research: Looking Beyond the 2% to the 100%

Social Media and the Internet Are Becoming Central

The proportion of people who report posting on social media is still less than one in four. In other words, for every three people, one looks at someone else’s posts. TikTok remains the fastest-growing social media platform, with one in five people over the age of 15 having an account.

40% of society has at least one digital platform subscription. However, this number has not significantly increased in the last two years. Nearly half of society uses alternative sites to access paid content for free, even though they don’t subscribe. Every kind of internet-related practice, from food delivery and shopping to banking, continues to grow. Even new applications related to artificial intelligence are being used by 14% of people, with 7% having them as apps on their phones. The proportion of people who do not use mobile banking has decreased from 54% to 20% in six years.

80% of People Say We Are in an Economic Crisis

According to research findings, only 17% of people say they can get by without problems. The proportion of people who consider the country to be in an economic crisis exceeds 80%.

Research Methodology: KONDA’s “Life Styles Research,” which was launched in 2008 and periodically repeated, conducted its 2025 report’s fieldwork on October 5-6, 2024. The research reflects the preferences, trends, and profiles of Turkey’s population over 15 years old during the time of the survey. It was designed and implemented to identify and track the trends and shifts in the preferences of the adult population in Turkey. The margin of error for the findings of the research is +/- 1.25% at a 95% confidence level and +/- 1.64% at a 99% confidence level.

“To understand whether you're looking at the trunk or the tail of the elephant, you need to see the whole thing.”

Aydın Erdem, Chairman of the Board, KONDA

“Since 2008, this research has been carried out periodically. For this project, each time, KONDA has conducted surveys in over 40 provinces, visiting about 900 neighborhoods or villages and interviewing more than 6,000 individuals, with over 200 surveys conducted in each household. We can consider that the research meets the standards for representativeness, trends, and contact principles.”

Sources: Hayat Tarzları Araştırması: Yüzde 2’nin peşinden yüzde 100’e bakmak

Türkiye’nin röntgeni: “Hayat Tarzları”

1. Women's employment is a highly debated issue in Turkey. Overall female employment stands at a relatively low 36.6%, but the rate jumps to 68.9% when it comes to women in white-collar jobs. Source: TUIK

2. A kıraathane in Turkey is a traditional café or coffeehouse, originally serving as a social hub for men to gather, converse, and engage in intellectual discussions. Historically, they played a key role in spreading news, political ideas, and literature, especially in the late Ottoman and early Republic eras. Over time, they became central to urban social life. Today, while still popular, many have evolved into spaces where elderly, retired men spend their time—often because their spouses prefer not to spend the entire day at home with them. Some now also attract a broader clientele, including women.