Turkey: Women live longer, but have fewer healthy years

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Women in Turkey live longer lives than men on average but enjoy nearly four fewer healthy years, according to statistics released in the runup to next Monday’s International Women’s Day.

Based on data from 2017-2019, at birth women in Turkey are set to enjoy 55.4 years of healthy life, versus 59.1 years for males, said the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Friday.

But the data said women’s life expectancy at birth is 5.4 years longer than men’s.

"Life expectancy at birth was 78.6 years for the overall population, 81.3 years for females and 75.9 years for males," it said.

Women make up 49.9% of Turkey’s total population with 41.7 million, while men make up 50.1% at nearly 42 million, it said.

The report also said the proportion of people older than 25 who completed at least one level of education has risen from 81.1% in 2008 to 91% in 2019.

By gender, this proportion in 2008 was 72.6% for women and 89.8% for men, and 85.7% for women and 96.4% for men in 2019.

- Men dominate labor market, parliament

The report also said women’s employment rate is less than half of men’s.

“In 2019, the proportion of those 15 and older with jobs in Turkey was 45.7%. This figure was 28.7% for females and 63.1% for males."

Over the last seven years the duration of working life for women got 2.4 years longer, the report showed.

The duration of working life is defined as the number of years that a person is expected to be active in the labor market throughout his/her life.

"The duration of working life in 2013 of those 15 and older was 16.7 years for females and 37.7 years for males, versus 19.1 years for females and 39 years for males in 2019."

A larger share of seats in Turkey’s parliament also now go to women.

As of 2007, 9.1% of parliament’s deputies were women, versus 17.3% in 2020, it said.

But the 101 women deputies in 2020 are still far outnumbered by the 483 male deputies.​​​​​​​