People in Turkey consider their personal health and the economy, unemployment and high prices in particular, the greatest sources of risk to their personal safety, according to the findings of the 2024 World Risk Poll conducted by Gallup for the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
The 2024 World Risk Poll was based on nearly 147,000 interviews conducted by Gallup in 142 countries.
While globally, traffic accidents and injuries were considered to be the greatest source of risk to safety in daily life, the corresponding figure in Turkey was only 7 percent.
According to the poll, 16 percent of adults around the world considered road-related accidents to be the greatest source of risk to their safety in daily life. Crime and violence ranked second at 14 percent, while personal health concerns followed closely at 13 percent.
The results from Turkey differed from the global trends. According to the poll, 16 percent of adults in Turkey considered personal health to be the greatest source of risk to their safety. A similar percentage answered that economy, namely unemployment and high prices, were the greatest source of risk. Crime and violence ranked third at 9 percent.
Road-related accidents were considered the greatest source of risk to safety by 7 percent of adults, while 2 percent reported having no significant sources of risk in their daily lives. Financial concerns were perceived as the greatest source of risk by 6 percent, and concerns about war and terrorism were reported by 9 percent. Additionally, 8 percent of respondents highlighted the threat of non-weather-related disasters, while 5 percent pointed to political instability.
Other sources of risk included COVID-19 (3 percent), work-related accidents (3 percent), and climate change (1 percent).
More than 60 percent of the Turkish public thought the economy presented the most pressing problem in their lives, according to an October survey conducted by ASAL Research.
Turkey has been grappling with a deepening cost-of-living crisis marked by high inflation and a depreciating currency.
The country’s poor have been hit the hardest by economic deterioration that saw the official annual inflation rate reach a decades-long high of 85 percent in October of 2022, according to official figures. The rate then fell, but it remains a significant concern. It stood at 48.6 percent in October, slowing less than anticipated, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed on November 11.
However, according to the Turkey Inflation Research Group (ENAG), an independent group of economists, annual inflation was much higher than was announced by TurkStat, standing at 89.7 percent in October.