Turkey’s child population much higher than EU

By Burcu Calik Gocumlu

ANKARA (AA) – The number of people under the age of 18 is much higher in Turkey compared to the EU, a recent government report said Wednesday.

Turkey's Ministry of Labor, Social Services and Family in its Children’s Bulletin listed what the state is doing to protect its children and ensure their bright future.

On April 23, Thursday, Turkey will mark the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.

The 113-page document compiled comparative data from the EU.

Ireland has the highest child population (24.8%), followed by France (21.9%), the U.K. (21.1%) and Switzerland (21%), according to the bulletin.

The average figure for EU countries is 18.7%.

By the end of 2019, Turkey had the highest child population figures with 27.5%, which translates into 22.8 million people.

Turkey’s figures are 8.8% higher than the rest of EU.

Children aged 4-6 make up the highest share with their numbers above 6.4 million.

Germany (16.4%) and Italy (16.2%) have the lowest child population in the EU.

- Population to decrease by 2080

Tracing the trajectory, the bulletin said, the child population has decreased in Turkey over the years.

It was 45% of the total in 1935, 48.5% in 1970, and 35.2% in 2000.

These figures are expected to fall to 27% in 2023, 23.3% in 2040, and 19% in 2080.

- Schooling

Some 1.6 million children aged 0-6 were attending 32,542 kindergartens as of last December.

Enrollment in pre-schools is rising every year. In the 2018-2019 academic year, the enrollment of students aged 3 to 5 rose to 39.1%, age 4 to 5 to 50.8% and age 5 to 68.3%.

The net enrollment has increased to over 90% in elementary school and to 85% in middle schools, according to the Education Ministry.

Private kindergartens in the country are legally bound to keep a 3% quota for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Based on this, 3,300 children attend private kindergartens and children’s club for free.

A total of 2,225 children study in private schools with state support, and there are nearly 2,000 children engaged in sports.

- Family support

The government aims to assist economically disadvantaged children through its Social Economic Support (SED) project run by the Family Ministry.

As of 2019, 128,000 children received some form of support from this project.

Families were given housing support of an average of 1,023 Turkish lira ($146).

Close to 16,000 middle school children benefited from this project.

By March 2020, 7,435 children were provided with a foster family. Among these children, 789 are disabled and 3.5% are of foreign origin.

The state authorities have rescued 20,176 street children since June 2017.

With "Safe Children Project", around 33,000 children were observed and helped.

The Children Homes project was initiated to provide a home to 14,000 orphans.

*Writing by Firdevs Bulut