Turkey’s elderly population increased by 24 percent in the last five years, indicating that the aging phenomenon is persistently gripping the country, figures by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) show.
Statistics released as part of the country’s “Respect the Elderly Week” show that the population of people over the age of 65 in Turkey rose to 8.25 million in 2021, up from 6.65 million in 2016.
The proportion of the elderly population in terms of the total population was 9.7 percent in 2021, up from 8.3 percent in 2016. The majority of senior citizens are those between the ages of 65 and 74, around the retirement age.
Under the current official population projections, the proportion of the elderly population is expected to be 10.2 percent in 2023, 12.9 percent in 2030, 16.3 percent in 2040, 22.6 percent in 2060 and 25.6 percent in 2080.
Women make up the majority of the elderly population as their lifespan on average is longer than men in Turkey. The figures showed that some 44.3 percent of the elderly population was made up of men and 55.7 percent of women.
The report underlined that the median age was 31.4 in 2016 and 33.1 in 2021. The median age was 32.4 for men and 33.8 for women in 2021.