Child population constituted 28% of Turkey’s population

According to Address Based Population Registration System (ABPRS) results; while Turkey’s total population was 82 million 3 thousand and 882 by the end of 2018, the child population was 22 million 920 thousand and 422. While the child population, which includes 0-17 age group according to the definition of United Nations, constituted 48.5% of the total population in 1970, this proportion was 41.8% in 1990 and 28% in 2018 in Turkey.

According to the population projections, the proportion of the child population is foreseen to be 23.3% in 2040, 20.4% in 2060, and 19% in 2080.

Proportion of the child population within total population, 1935-2080

When the proportion of the child population in the total population was examined in the European Union (EU) countries in 2018; the proportion of the child population of the EU-28 member countries in the total population was 18.7%. It was seen that the countries having the highest proportion of the child population were Ireland with 24.8%, France with 21.9% and United Kingdom with 21.1% among the EU-28 member countries, respectively. The countries having the lowest proportion of the child population were Italy with 16.2%, Germany with 16.4% and Malta with 16.6%, respectively.

According to ABPRS results, when the proportion of the child population was analyzed by provinces, the province with the highest proportion of the child population was Şanlıurfa with 46.3% in 2018. Şanlıurfa was followed by Şırnak with 43.9% and Ağrı with 42.5%. The first three provinces with the lowest proportion of the child population were Tunceli with 16.7%, Edirne with 18.1% and Kırklareli with 18.7%.

The first 5 provinces with the highest and lowest proportions of the child population, 2018
The most popular names given to babies were Yusuf for boys and Zeynep for girls
According to ABPRS results, the most popular boy names given to newborn babies were Yusuf, Eymen and Ömer Asaf, girl names were Zeynep, Elif and Defne in 2018. On the other hand, it was seen that the most popular names given to children who were in the age group of 0-17 were Yusuf, Mustafa and Mehmet for boys, Zeynep, Elif and Yağmur for girls.

According to ABPRS results, the total age dependency ratio, which is defined as the number of persons aged 0-14 and 65 and over for every 100 persons in the working age at 15-64 age group, was 47.4% in 2018. The child dependency ratio, which indicates the number of children in the 0-14 age group per 100 persons at 15-64 age group, was 34.5%.

According to the population projections, it is foreseen that the child dependency ratio will decrease to 33.5% in 2023, 28.7% in 2050 and 26.7% in 2080.

According to Ministry of Health data; while the proportion of birth with cesarean section was 21% in 2002, it was 51% in 2014 and 53% in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

According to Statistical Regions (SR) Level 1, the region with the highest proportion of cesarean section was in TR6 Mediterranean (Antalya, Isparta, Burdur, Adana, Mersin, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Osmaniye) with 64% and the region with the lowest proportion of cesarean section was TRA Northeast Anatolia (Erzurum, Erzincan, Bayburt, Ağrı, Kars, Iğdır, Ardahan) with 34% in 2017.

According to the results of national education statistics; the net schooling ratio at primary school level was 91.5% in the 2017/’18 education year. When net schooling ratio were compared by sex, it was seen that there was no significant difference between sexes.

According to the results of life satisfaction survey, the most problems faced in the educational services was in the subject of the cost of education. In 2018, the proportion of those who had problems about cost of education was 44.2% in public schools and 60.4% in private schools.In 2018, the least problem faced in educational services was seen in the the subject of the heating, cleaning, etc. of schools. This proportion was 8.8% in public schools and 1.3% in private schools.

According to the marriage statistics, while the proportion of legal child marriages for girls aged between 16 and 17 within the total legal marriages were 5.8% in 2014, it declined to 3.8% in 2018.When this proportion was analyzed by provinces, it was seen that the province having the highest proportion of the child marriages for girls was Ağrı with 14.8% in 2018. This province was followed by Muş with 14.1% and Bitlis with 12.5%. The provinces having the lowest proportion of the child marriages for girls within total marriages were Bolu with 0.7%, Trabzon and Artvin with 0.9%.

According to the results of household labour force survey, while the labour force participation rate in 15-17 age group was 20.3% in 2017, this rate was 21.1% in 2018. When the labour force participation rate was analyzed by sex, while the labour force participation rate was 28.5% for boys, this rate was 11.8% for girls in 2017. The same rate was 30% for boys and 11.8% for girls in 2018.

According to the results of Turkey health survey, 2016; when the major diseases and health problems occured in last six months at the age group of 7-14 were analyzed, the oral and dental health problems was the most common disease. The proportion of those who said their children had oral and dental health problems in the last six months was 23.4%. This was followed by visual problems with 13.6%, infectious diseases with 7.9%, skin diseases with 5.8%.

According to the cause of death statistics, the most common cause of deaths among the children in 1-17 age were external causes of injury and poisoning. While the number of death caused by this reason in 1-17 age group children was 2 270 in 2016, it decreased to 1 846 in 2017. Diseases of the nervous system and the sense organs became the second most common cause of death among the children in 1-17 age group. 1 085 children in 2016 and 992 children in 2017 lost their life because of the diseases of the nervous system and the sense organs.The proportion of children who lost their life due to traffic accident was 10.6%
According to the road traffic accident statistics, 15.2% of traffic accidents in 2017 resulted in death or injury. While totally 7 427 people lost their lifes during these accidents, 787 of them were children. When age group distribution of children who lost their lifes was examined, it was seen that 42.1% of the child deaths occurred in the 0-9 age group, 22.2% in the 10-14 age group and 35.7% in the 15-17 age group.

The next release on this subject will be on April 2020.
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Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has started to publish press release on special occasions with reference to the importance of the day since 2012. Within the scope of “April 23 Turkish National Sovereignty and International Children’s Day”, which is the unique holiday given to children as a present in the world, TurkStat published this special press release for children. In this press release, social economic characteristics as population structure of children for today and future, health, education and labour force were included.The data in the press release were compiled from the censuses and surveys conducted by TurkStat and the administrative records.