Home Owners Insurance, Home Computer Users,
Popular Personal Names, etc.
A Wide-ranging Statistical Survey
of the Turkish People
from 2001

From Home Owners Insurance to Home Computers A statistical survey of the 2002 Turks We were searching our resort-city files the other day for home owners insurance policy-holders near us -- when we ran across this informative statistical survey from January 2002 (see Hürriyet Gazetesi article at left). And while it is quite dated in many respects (e.g. the number of home owners insurance policy-holders [both foreign and domestic] has risen dramatically in Turkey since 2002), in other respects it's hardly dated at all (e.g. Fatma and Mehmet, the most-popular personal names for women and men in the 2002 survey, are still the personal name favorites in 2006. See the 2006 Personal Names Statistics at: http://www.learningpracticalturkish.com/personal-names--006-06-16.html So we thought it would be a shame not to register the information online -- as a useful comparison tool for the future. The statistical survey was done by a firm called Stratej/Mori who personally polled 10,000 people 18 years of age and older -- between February and October of 2001. The polling was done in the Turkish provinces of Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, İstanbul, İzmir, Konya, Samsun and Trabzon. Starting from the upper right side of the article and moving in a clockwise direction, the headings of the various statistical categories read: Most popular women's and men's personal names (a percentage) Note that the favorite female personal names in 2002 were all the same in the exact same order as the favorite female personal names in 2006. And that... only one of the 2002 male personal names, Hasan, has been displaced in the 2006 statistical survey, by Hüseyin. Ability to Read-Write (% of ...) Highest Level of Education (% of...) While there has been improvement since 2002, the percentage of Turkish youngsters who only make it through elementary school is still too high in 2006. Percentage owning home computers The percentage of home computer users has surely risen during the past 4 years -- as high speed internet connections for home computers have become the norm. Percentage owning cell phones (mobile phones) The last cell phone statistics we saw indicated upwards of 70% ownership in 2006. Percentage interested in Association Football (Left to right -- Not interested, Interested, Non-committal) That nearly 50% of Turks said they didn't care about Association Football in 2002 -- the year that Turkey placed 3rd in the World Cup -- seems to us to be a gross statistical error. Percentage who say prayers Nearly 40% of Muslim Turks say they do some form of the 5-prayers-a-day ritual. Percentage of those affiliated/not affiliated with a definite religion Marital Status Percentage who speak at least one foreign language English Language-use still far outdistances the other foreign languages in 2006. Percentage who have some knowledge of a foreign language Percentage of Home Owners The growth in the number of Home Owners in Turkey has been significant in recent years -- due mainly to modern long-term mortgages that banking institutions have finally adopted and embraced. These new mortgages, mortgage rates, etc. have also caused a rise in Home Owners Insurance needs. Percentage of Vehicle owners (automobiles, trucks, etc.) Percentage who have Automobile, Life, or Home Owners Insurance There was a time (not so long ago, in the 70's) when the fatalistic Turks didn't believe in Insurance at all. For example, when we made ready to return to the States in 1976, we tried for a week before departure to get someone in Turkey to sell us Travel and Life Insurance -- to no avail. It wasn't until we landed in Italy for an overnight stopover, that we were able to buy Basic Travel Insurance -- from a coin-operated machine in da Vinci Airport at Fiumicino. So...while the percentage of insured Turks has greatly increased since the 1970's, it may mostly be the result of traffic laws that have mandated automobile insurance and long-term mortgages/mortgage rates that have mandated home owners insurance.