Turkey's elderly population rises to nearly 8M in 2020

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's elderly population, aged 65 years and over, reached nearly 8 million as of the end of 2020, the country's statistical authority announced on Thursday.

The figure, reaching 7,953,555, grew by 22.5% over the past five years, up from around 6.5 million in 2015, TurkStat said.

While the proportion of the elderly population in the total population was 8.2% in 2015, this increased to 9.5% percent in 2020.

According to TurkStat, women represented 55.8% of the elderly population, while men made up 44.2% last year.

The proportion of the elderly population in Turkey is expected to rise to 11% in 2025, 12.9% in 2030, 16.3% in 2040, 22.6% in 2060, and 25.6% in 2080.

Official figures revealed that there were 5,780 centenarians in the country -- 0.1% of the elderly population.

TurkStat said the elderly dependency ratio -- the number of elderly persons per hundred persons in working age -- was 14.1% last year, up from 12.2% in 2015.

This ratio is expected to be 16.4% in 2025, 19.6% in 2030, 25.3% in 2040, 37.5% in 2060 and 43.6% in 2080.

TurkStat also noted that last year, 9.5% of the world population was in the elderly category.

"The three countries that had the highest proportion of the elderly population were Monaco with 33.5%, Japan with 28.5% and Germany with 22.9%, respectively," said the institute.

Turkey was in the 66th rank among 167 countries, it added.