Every Turkish citizen donated $53 last year: Report

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Every Turkish citizen donated 303 Turkish liras ($53.34) in charity last year, according to an Istanbul-based survey report.

These individual donations added up to 17.6 billion Turkish liras ($3.1 billion), which makes for 0.5% of the country's GDP, the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey (TUSEV) said.

Nearly 90% of donations were made directly -- to relatives, neighbors or beggars -- while the rest of them were made through nonprofit organizations, the report said.

The report also noted that nearly half of people do charity based on religious beliefs.

Turkey, which was the most generous nation in 2017 and 2018, spent $8.4 billion in humanitarian assistance in 2018 -- a significant share in the $28.9 billion of total international aid.