NEWSROOM

The fifth of the Youth Well-Being Report, one of the most comprehensive studies on youth in Turkey and introduced the concept of "Youth at Home" to the literature, has been published. The report prepared by the Habitat Association revealed that the rate of young people who are satisfied with their lives has decreased in the last 5 years to 46% this year.

TURKEY - The fifth edition of the Wellbeing of Youth Report, prepared by the Habitat Association in partnership with Infakto RW, has been published. The report showed that the rate of young people who are satisfied with their life decreased to 45.6%, while the life satisfaction of young people has been on a downward trend for the last five years.

The prominent findings in the report were evaluated with the participation of the Chairman of the Board of Habitat Association, Prof Dr Sezai Hazır and the Founder of Infakto RW, Prof Dr Emre Erdoğan, at the meeting held at Facebook Station.

The research carried out biennially since 2017, was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,228 young people between the ages of 18-29 in 28 different cities representing the urban youth population in Turkey between 8 March and 8 April 2023. One of the report's most important findings showed that satisfaction with life and hopes for the future are greatly influenced by employment conditions. While the rate of young people satisfied with life was 70.8% in 2017, this rate was measured as 45.6% in this year's study. The rate of young people who were hopeful for the future decreased to 43.7%. In 2017, this rate was measured as 66.6%.

The least satisfied group is young job seekers

The report, one of the most comprehensive studies on youth in Turkey, introduced the concept of "youth at home", which refers to young people aged 18-24 who are neither in education nor employment for various reasons. The satisfaction rate of home youth was determined as 46.4% this year. While the life satisfaction rate of the working youth was 47.1% and 51.8% for the students, it was determined that the group with the lowest life satisfaction was job seekers. Only 28% of young job seekers said they were satisfied with their lives.

Pointing out that the employment conditions of young people significantly affect their satisfaction with life and their hopes for the future, Habitat Association Chairman of the Board Sezai Hazır said, “We are a non-governmental organization that produces impact-oriented projects that develop social capacity based on strong partnerships that are compatible with the digitalizing world and aiming at sustainable development. In many of our projects, we focus on equipping young people with 21st-century skills. We carry out active and intensive work with more than 5 thousand volunteers in 81 provinces of Turkey, and we care about measuring their impact on the field. The Well-Being of Youth study is fundamental research for understanding young people, both for our own work and for all institutions that work with youth and adopt youth as a stakeholder. As we have seen in previous years' research, working status is the primary factor determining satisfaction. Suppose Turkey can create the right opportunities for its youth and invest enough in their education to prepare them for the high-paying job positions of the future. It will have used the demographic window of opportunity effectively in that case. But if this opportunity is mismanaged, serious unemployment, poverty and social unrest can occur in the country.” 

Infakto RW co-founder Prof. Dr Emre Erdoğan stated that the hopelessness of young people about the future is closely related to their inability to find a job, “They think it takes acquaintance to look for a job; they don't know how to look for a job in the corporate world. They are not knowledgeable in new skills to get a place in the business world. The main reason they dream of a future abroad is their perception of freedoms and lifestyle in Turkey.” 

35.8% of young people have an income of less than 3 thousand TL

Young people's satisfaction with their financial situation has also shown a downward trend since the report was first published in 2017. While the rate of young people who are satisfied with their financial situation this year was 38.3%, it was seen that 35.8% of the young people had a monthly personal income of 3 thousand TL or less. While it is known that one out of 5 young people described their financial situation as bad in 2017, this rate increased to 36.7% in 2023. While the minimum total income expectation of young people to lead a comfortable life was 9,000 – 18,000 TL with a rate of 39.3%, it was recorded as 18,000 TL and above with a rate of 45.2%.

Biggest Problem for Youth Inflation and Unemployment

According to the youth, the most critical problems they face are inflation and the cost of living, followed by unemployment and the inability to find a job. High rents come to the fore in the third place and the violence on the streets in the fourth place. One of the results of the research study is that inflation and the cost of living are the issues they will consider most while voting. Unemployment and the inability to find a job as one wishes come second.

The issues that young people will consider most when voting differ according to their political preferences. While young people who will vote for the Ruling Party Alliance (Cumhur İttifakı) reported higher rents and terrorist attacks than other alliances, inflation and cost of living, dropping out of education, and unqualified university education is higher among Oppositions’ Alliance (Millet İttifakı) voters compared to other alliances.

Youth's Political Participation Level is Low

The low level of political participation of young people is also seen in the results of the research: While voting is the most common form of involvement, the rate of those who are members of a party is 5.1%, the rate of those who play an active role in the campaigns is 7.1%, and the rate of those who attend the rally is 25.5%. These figures show that it is rare for young people to resort to traditional means of participation.

Young people are not very active in non-traditional forms of participation. The rate of those who participate in a boycott action is 12.5%, the rate of those who participate in mass marches is 12.1%, and the rate of those who boycott any product or service en masse is 12.5%. These figures indicate that non-traditional participation is also rare. It is seen that this opportunity is not used widely, as the tendency of young people to participate in the protest action on the internet is low.

One in four young people suffered losses in earthquakes

The report, published in 28 out of 16 provinces this year, also shed light on the rate of young people affected by the earthquake. According to this, the rate of those who lost their friends in the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş and surrounding provinces on February 6, 2023, is 19.2%, the rate of those who lost their family and/or relatives is 8.5%, the rate of those who had to suspend their education/freeze their registration is 3.7%, and they had to move. The ratio of the rest was determined as 3.2%.

Young people prefer face-to-face education

Underlining that in the comparison of face-to-face and distance education, 9 out of 10 young people find face-to-face education more beneficial and that a significant part of the students is not satisfied with the education that has recently been moved to the online environment, Habitat Association Chairman Sezai Hazır concluded his evaluations with the following statements: “According to the results, when comparing face-to-face and distance education, 90.9% of young people think that face-to-face education is more beneficial. In addition, it is emphasized in the report that a significant part of students face learning difficulties during the online education process. However, face-to-face training is essential to increase young people's education quality and protect their psychological health. According to the results of our report, the vast majority of young people are satisfied with face-to-face training.”