Turkey's total expenditure on education rose 18.9 percent to $41.95 billion in 2016, compared to the previous year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced yesterday.

The expenditure on education as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) increased to 6.2 percent in 2016 from 5.8 percent in 2015, according to the data.

In 2016, 74.2 percent of expenditure was public while households accounted for the remaining 18.8 percent.

Tertiary education accounted for 29.8 percent ($8.17 billion) of the public sector's total education expenditure, while 28.1 percent ($7.69 billion) was for primary education.

Private institutions, on the other hand, allocated 43.3 percent ($3.02 billion) of total spending for tertiary education, and 32.6 percent ($2.28 billion) for upper secondary education.