Turkey’s population structure has changed: the elderly population has increased by 22.6 percent in 5 years

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) announced the data of the elderly with statistics for 2022.

Consequently, the population structure of Turkey continued to change and the share of the elderly population in the total population continued to increase last year.

While the population of 65 years and over, which is considered the elderly population, was 6 million 895 thousand 385 people in 2017, it increased 22.6 percent in the last 5 years and amounted to 8 million 451 thousand 669 people in 2022.

INCREASED TO 9.9 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL POPULATION

The fact that the proportion of the elderly population in the total population exceeds 10.0 percent is an indicator of the aging of the population.

While the proportion of the elderly population in the total population was 8.5% in 2017, it increased to 9.9% in 2022.

The elderly population in Turkey has increased at a higher rate than the population of other age groups.

THE RATIO OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE DECREASES, WHILE THE ELDERLY POPULATION INCREASES

TurkStat stated that the age structure of the population has changed with the evolution of health, standard of living, level of well-being and life expectancy at birth in Turkey, which is undergoing a process of “demographic transformation”, which is called the global aging process:

“While the proportion of children and young people in the total population has decreased, the proportion of the elderly in the total population has increased. Although Turkey still has a young population structure compared to countries with proportionally elderly population, the elderly population is quite high in number.

44.4 PERCENT ARE MEN, 55.6 PERCENT ARE WOMEN

In 2022, 44.4% of the elderly population were men and 55.6% were women.

When the population of older adults is analyzed by age group, in 2017, 61.6% of the population of older adults is in the age group of 65 to 74 years, 29.7% in the age group from 75 to 84 years and 8.6% in the age group of 85 years and over. In 2022, 64.5 percent of them are in the age group 65-74, 27.7 percent are in the age group 75-84, and 7.9 percent are in the age group aged 85 years and over.

The number of adults aged 100 years and over, who constitute 0.1 percent of the older adult population, was 5,344 in 2022.

INCREASE IN AVERAGE AGE

The median age is known as the age of the person in the middle when the ages of the people that make up the population are ordered from youngest to greatest, from the newborn to the oldest.

The median age, which is one of the indicators that provide information on the aging of the population, was 31.7 years in 2017 and 33.5 years in 2022.

The median age in 2022 was 32.8 years for men and 34.2 for women.

TURKEY HAS 66 OUT OF 184 COUNTRIES IN THE FORMER POPULATION.

According to United Nations world population estimates, the world population for 2022 is estimated at 7,975,105,156 people, while the population of older adults is 782,998,642 people.

According to these estimates, 9.8 percent of the world’s population was made up of senior citizens.

The top three countries with the highest proportion of the elderly population were Japan with 29.9 percent, Italy with 24.1 percent and Finland with 23.3 percent.

Turkey ranked 66th out of 184 countries.

OLDER POPULATION IN SINOP

The province with the highest rate of elderly population was Sinop with 20.2 percent in 2022.

This province was followed by Kastamonu with 19.3 percent and Giresun with 18 percent.

The province with the lowest proportion of elderly population was Şırnak with 3.5 percent. This province was followed by Hakkari with 4 percent and Şanlıurfa with 4.1 percent.

The number of provinces where the proportion of the elderly population in the total population is 10 percent or more was 52 in 2022.

1.6 MILLION PEOPLE LIVE ALONE: 74.7 PERCENT ARE WOMEN

Of the 6,276,433 households with at least one older adult, 1,632,874 were older adults who lived alone.

Of these households, 74.7% were elderly women and 25.3% were elderly men.

Burdur was the province with the highest proportion of one-person nursing homes among households with at least one elderly person, at 35.5 percent in 2022.

This province was followed by Balıkesir with 35 percent and Çanakkale with 34.5 percent.

The province with the lowest rate was Hakkari at 7.8 percent. This province was followed by Batman with 13.5 percent and Şırnak with 14.7 percent.

THE ILLNESS RATE 14.4 PERCENT

While the literacy rate among the elderly population was 80.4% in 2017, it became 85.6% in 2021.

The illiterate elderly population rate was 19.6 percent in 2017, while in 2021 it was 14.4 percent.

The rate of illiterate older women was 5.3 times higher than that of older men in 2021.

While the rate for illiterate elderly women was 22.3 percent, the rate for elderly men was 4.2 percent.

46.5 PERCENT GRADUATE FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

When the older adult population is analyzed by level of education, in 2017, 44.5 percent of the older adult population has a primary education degree, 6 percent has a secondary education degree or equivalent school/education primary, 6.3 percent have a secondary education degree or equivalent, 6.2 percent had a higher education graduate.

In 2021, the rate of graduating from primary school will be 46.5%, the rate of graduating from secondary school or equivalent/primary education will be 8.5%, the rate of those with secondary education or equivalent will be 8 .6% and the rate of those with higher education will be 7.9 percent.

When the educational level of the older adult population was analyzed by gender, it was observed that there were significant differences between the genders. It was observed that the proportion of the elderly male population was higher than the proportion of the female elderly population at all levels of education completed.

POVERTY RATE OF THE ELDERLY POPULATION 11.4 PERCENT

According to the results of the survey on income and living conditions, the poverty rate, which was calculated based on 60% of the median equivalent household disposable income, was 20.1% for Turkey in 2017, while it became the 21.3% in 2021.

While this rate was 15.5 percent in 2017 for the older adult population, it became 11.4 percent in 2021.

When analyzing the poverty of the elderly population by gender, while the poverty rate for the elderly was 13.5% in 2017, it went to 9.9% in 2021. Although the poverty rate for women seniors was 17% in 2017, it became 12.6% in 2021.

INCREASE IN THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IN THE ELDERLY POPULATION

According to labor force statistics, the labor force participation rate of the population aged 15 and over was 52.8 percent in 2017, while it was 51.4 percent in 2021.

While this rate was 12.2% for the older adult population in 2017, it became 11.3% in 2021.

When analyzing the labor force participation rate by gender, while this rate was 18.6 percent in the older male population in 2021, it was 5.4 percent in the older female population.

While the unemployment rate in the senior population was 2.2 percent in 2017, it was 3 percent in 2021.

64.3 PERCENT IS IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

According to labor force statistics, when examining the sectoral distribution of the employed older adult population, 64.3% of the older adult population is in agriculture, 27.3% in services, 6.3% % in industry and 2.1% in construction.

MOST DEATHS DUE TO DISEASES OF THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM

According to death and cause of death statistics, 37.6 percent of the elderly who died in 2021 did so from diseases of the circulatory system.

This disease was followed by diseases of the respiratory system with 15 percent and in third place benign and malignant tumors with 12 percent.

According to the statistics of deaths and causes of death, the number of older adults who died from Alzheimer’s disease was 13,642 in 2017 and 12,239 in 2021.

While the rate of older people who died from Alzheimer’s disease was 4.6 percent in 2017, this rate increased to 3 percent in 2021.

THE PROPORTION OF THE ELDERLY USING THE INTERNET 36.6 PERCENT

According to the results of the household information technology use survey, while the rate of people in the 65-74 age group using the Internet was 11.3% in 2017, this rate increased to 36 .6% in 2022.

When older people who used the Internet were examined by gender, it was observed that men use the Internet more than women.

While the rate of older men using the Internet was 43.8% in 2022, the rate of older women was 30.3%.