Share of children in Turkey's population declining

Turkish Statistical Office (TURKSTAT) announced while Turkey’s population was 83 million 614 thousand 362 people by the end of 2020, 22 million 750 thousand 657 of it constituted by the child population. 51.3% of child population was boys and 48.7% was girls.

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 27.2% in 2020.

According to population projections, the proportion of child population was expected to be 26.6% in 2025, 25.6% in 2030, 23.3% in 2040, 20.4% in 2060 and 19.0% in 2080.

Proportion of child population in total population, 1935-2080

When the proportions of child population of 27 European Union (EU) member countries were analyzed, the EU average of the proportion of child population was 18.2% in 2020. Among the EU member countries, the countries with the highest proportion of child population were Ireland with 24.2%, France with 21.6%, Sweden with 21.1%, respectively. The countries with the lowest proportion of child population were Italy with 15.8%, Malta with 15.9% and Germany with 16.4%, respectively. It was seen that the proportion of Turkey’s child population with 27.2% was higher than that of the EU member countries.

Comparison of proportion of child population with the European Union member countries, 2020

Life expectancy was 64.6 years at 15 years old

According to the Life Tables, 2017-2019; life expectancy at birth was 78.6 years for total population, 75.9 years for males and 81.3 years for females in Turkey.

It was seen that the average remaining life span for children at 7 years old was 72.5 years for total, 69.9 years for boys and 75.2 years for girls in Turkey. For 15 years old as starting working age, the average remaining life span was 64.6 years for total, 62.0 years for boys and 67.3 years for girls. The difference in life expectancy at this age between boys and girls was 5.3 years.

Life expectancy for children by age and sex, 2017-2019