Using per capita income statistics, Turkey is ranked internationally in the low to medium income group. When compared to countries that were once at the same level but have gone on to make dramatic improvements in their income distribution, it is easy to see that Turkish efforts have been largely unsuccessful. In fact, the renewed and accelerated effort toward economic development and industrialization that began in the early 1980s has had the effect of sharpening the extreme income divide in Turkey. Between 1987 and 1994 the share of the national income earned by the bottom 20 percent of the population dropped by 7.25 percent, and in 1994 the richest 20 percent of the population controlled 47.7 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 20 percent controlled only 5.8 percent.