Figures released ahead of the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, a national holiday marked on May 19, suggest there are fewer people to celebrate it now as Türkiye is gradually aging. Still, numbers are ahead of European Union (EU) countries, as per the Turkish Statistical Institute (Turkstat), which published the statistics on Tuesday.
According to results of the Address Based Population Registration System (ADNKS), the youth population aged 15-24 stood at 12.9 million, constituting 15.2% of the population; 51.2% of the young population comprised of males and 48.8% was female, which was nearly 85.3 million by the end of 2022.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) predicts a continuous decline in the youth population, 14.0% in 2030, 13.4% in 2040, 11.8% in 2060 and 11.1% in 2080, respectively. Yet, it remained higher than 27 EU member countries.
When the young population is analyzed by age group, 29.7% of the young population was within the 15-17 age group, 19.1% in the 18-19 age group, and 30.2% in the 20-22 age group while 21% was in the 23-24 age group in 2022.
The highest proportion of the youth population is in the southeastern province of Hakkari at 22%, followed by Şırnak at 21.7% and Siirt at 21.1% and provinces with the lowest young population ratio were Muğla and Balıkesir with 12.3% followed by Ordu with 12.7%, Tunceli, Sinop and Kırklareli with 12.8%.
Life expectancy
The data also revealed that the average life expectancy rate in Türkiye stood at 77.7 years for 2019-2021 after decreasing from 78.3 years recorded in 2018-2020, while the life expectancy of an average 30-year-old Turkish citizen went down from 49 years on average to 46.5 years for men and 51.6 years for women.
In addition, a significant difference was noted between sexes when it came to data on legal marital status. In 2022, 96.3% of the young male population was unmarried, 3.6% married, and 0.1% divorced. While 85.8% of the young female population was unmarried, 13.7% were married and 0.4% were divorced.
Higher education
The higher education data shows 44.4% enrollment for the 2020-2021 academic year, which rose to 44.7% in 2021-2022. The enrollment rate by gender decreased from 40.5% to 40.3% for men, while it increased from 48.5% to 49.2% for women.
According to the household workforce survey, the employment rate of the young population increased from 32.2% in 2021 to 35.3% in 2022. However, while the employment rate for young men was 42.8% in 2021, it grew to 46.9% in 2022, and while this rate was 21.2% for young women in 2021, it rose to 23.2% in 2022.
While the rate of youth who were neither part of any educational program nor employed was 24.7% in 2021, which decreased to 24.2% in 2022. While the rate of young men was 17.5% in 2021, it fell to 16.4% in 2022; and while this rate was 32.4% in young women in 2021, it decreased to 32.3% in 2022.
When sectors analyze employment among the young population, it was found that 15.1% of the employed youth are in the agricultural sector, 31.4% in the industrial sector, and 53.5% in the service sector.
General health status
According to life satisfaction survey results, individuals aged 18 and over who were satisfied with their general health status was 69.3% in 2021, while it was 69.2% in 2022. On the other hand, those who were moderately satisfied were 18.5% in 2021 and 19.5% in 2022.
The young male population in the 18-24 age group who were satisfied with their general health status was 85.9% in 2021, which rose to 89.9% in 2022. The rate of moderately satisfied was 8.5% in 2021 and 6.1% in 2022, and those with no satisfaction were 5.6% in 2021 and 4.0% in 2022.
Source of happiness
According to life satisfaction survey results, health ranked first with 43.8% among the youth in 2022, followed by success with 23.4% and love with 15.5%. However, when the source of happiness is analyzed by gender, health ranked first with 39.4% in young men, followed by success at 27.9% and money at 17.0%. In young women, health ranked first with 48.3%, followed by love at 21.6% and success at 18.6%. The rate of job satisfaction among young men was 82.5%, and 48.2% for young women.
Death statistics
According to the death and cause of death statistics, 38.2% of young people in the 15-24 age group who died in 2021 died due to external injuries and poisonings, followed by benign and malignant tumors stood at 8.2%; with nervous system, and sensory organ ailments in the third place with 7.7%.
When causes of death were analyzed by gender, the rate of young men who lost their lives due to external injuries and poisoning stood at 42.3%, while young women stood at 28.3%.
