This study aims to examine whether Islamicity indices can be applied at the subnational level by analyzing regional variation across Türkiye’s 26 NUTS-2 regions during 2015–2020.
Islamicity scores were constructed through min-max normalization and equal weighting across economic, legal-governance and human-political rights dimensions, then analyzed with panel-data models and robust standard errors.
Significant regional disparities emerged: Istanbul and Ankara ranked highest, while eastern and southeastern regions ranked lowest. Gender equality, living conditions and health were the strongest positive correlates of index scores.
The analysis is limited to 2015–2020 and secondary quantitative data, restricting long-run observation and leaving underlying causal processes to future qualitative work.
Results support region-specific policy prioritization in gender equality, health, education and living conditions, especially in persistently low-scoring regions.
The findings show that the index captures institutional and socio-economic outcomes rather than personal religiosity, helping reframe debates on justice and regional inequality.
This study extends the Islamicity indices literature beyond cross-country comparisons by offering one of the first subnational applications based on a regional panel for Turkey.
