Children make up 27.2% of Turkey's population

Children made up 27.2% of Turkey’s population in 2020, down from 27.5% in 2019, official figures showed.

The population of children was 22.75 million in 2020, while the overall population was 83.6 million, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Tuesday.

"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% in 2080," it added.

The institute recalled that the ratio was 46% in 1980, 41.8% in 1990, 35.2% in 2000, and 30.8% in 2010.

“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%,” it said, adding the lowest proportion was in Italy with 15.8%.

The child dependency ratio -- the number of children in the 0-14 age group per 100 persons at the 15-64 age group – was recorded at 33.7% in Turkey as of the end of last year.

Last year, the completion rate for primary education was 98.6%, for lower secondary education was 97.7%, and for upper secondary education was 70.3%.

The proportion of legal child marriages for girls and boys aged 16 and 17 within the total legal marriages were 2.7% and 0.1%, respectively.

While the labor force participation rate in the 15-17 cohort was 16.2% in 2020, this ratio was 23.4% for boys and 8.6% for girls.

"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," the institute added.