Children make up 26.9% of Turkiye's population

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Children made up 26.9% of Turkiye’s population in 2021, down from 27.2% in 2019, official figures showed on Wednesday.

The population of children was 22.74 million in 2021, while the overall population was 84.7 million, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

"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 ratio was 48.5% in 1970, 41.8% in 1990 and 35.2% in 2000.

“The EU average of the proportion of child population was 18.2% in 2021," TurkStat said.

The EU country with the highest proportion of child population was Ireland with 23.9%, and with the lowest proportion was Italy with 15.8%.

The child dependency ratio -- the number of children in the 0-14 age group per 100 persons in the 15-64 age group – was recorded at 33% in Turkiye as of the end of last year.

Last year, the completion rate for primary education was 93.2%, for lower secondary education 88.9%, and for upper secondary education 87.9%.

The proportion of legal child marriages for girls and boys aged 16 and 17 within the total legal marriages were 2.1% and 0.1%, respectively.

While the labor force participation rate in the 15-17 cohort was 16.4% in 2021, this ratio was 22.8% for boys and 9.5% for girls.