If you lived in Turkey instead of Libya, you would:

Health

live 6.3 years longer

In Libya, the average life expectancy is 71 years (70 years for men, 73 years for women) as of 2024. In Turkey, that number is 77 years (75 years for men, 80 years for women) as of 2024.

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be 14.5% less likely to be obese

In Libya, 33.7% of adults are obese as of 2024. In Turkey, that number is 28.8% of people as of 2024.

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see 67.6% more spent on your healthcare

Libya spends $1,055 per person on healthcare as of 2023 (international dollars, adjusted for prices). Turkey spends $1,769 as of 2023.

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have 22.6% more access to essential health services

Libya scores 62 out of 100 on the universal health coverage index as of 2021. Turkey scores 76 as of 2021.

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be 46.2% less likely to die by suicide

Libya has a suicide rate of 5.0 per 100,000 people as of 2021. In Turkey, it is 2.7 per 100,000 as of 2021.

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Economy

be 54.6% less likely to be unemployed

In Libya, 18.8% of the labor force is unemployed as of 2025. In Turkey, that number is 8.5% as of 2025.

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make 2.9 times more money

Libya has a GDP per capita of $6,449 as of 2025, while in Turkey, the GDP per capita is $18,599 as of 2025.

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Life

be 74.6% less likely to die during childbirth

In Libya, approximately 59.0 women die from pregnancy or childbirth per 100,000 live births as of 2023. In Turkey, 15.0 women do as of 2023.

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have 33.3% fewer children

In Libya, there are approximately 16.5 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024. In Turkey, there are 11.0 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024.

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Basic Needs

be 36.6% more likely to have access to electricity

In Libya, approximately 73% of people have electricity access (100% in urban areas, and 96% in rural areas) as of 2023. In Turkey, that number is 100% of people on average (100% in urban areas, and 100% in rural areas) as of 2023.

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Expenditures

spend 45.2% less on healthcare

Libya spends 7.8% of its total GDP on healthcare as of 2023. In Turkey, that number is 4.3% of GDP as of 2023.

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Geography

see 4.1 times more coastline

Libya has a total of 1,770 km of coastline. In Turkey, that number is 7,200 km.

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Safety

be 80.9% less likely to die in a road accident

In Libya, road accidents kill 34.0 people per 100,000 as of 2021. In Turkey, they kill 6.5 per 100,000 as of 2021.

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Infrastructure

find 5.2 times more home broadband

Libya has 4.5 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people as of 2022. Turkey has 23.4 as of 2024.

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live with 94.1% less strain on fresh water

Libya withdraws 817% of its available fresh water each year as of 2022. Turkey withdraws 48% as of 2022.

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Environment

be 27.8% less likely to die from air pollution

In Libya, air pollution causes 54.0 deaths per 100,000 people as of 2019. In Turkey, it causes 39.0 as of 2019.

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emit 37.9% less CO2

Libya emits 8.7 tonnes of CO2 per person each year as of 2024. Turkey emits 5.4 tonnes as of 2024.

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Sources: World Bank (2021–2025), United Nations SDG Indicators (2019–2021), World Health Organization (2024), The World Factbook. How we calculate this

Turkey: At a glance

Turkey is a sovereign country in Middle East, with a total land area of approximately 769,632 sq km. Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." Under his leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the Kurdistan People's Congress or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives. After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey mainly to northern Iraq. In 2013, KGK and the Turkish Government agreed to a ceasefire that continues despite slow progress in ongoing peace talks. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community. Over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy; it began accession membership talks with the European Union in 2005.
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