Turkey has highest number of children in 0-5 age group in Europe: Report

ISTANBUL

Turkey has the highest number of children in the age group of 0-5 among European countries, with 8 million, according to a recent report published by the European Commission.

Turkey is followed by the United Kingdom, France and Germany with around 4.5 million children within this age range, according to data as of Jan. 1, 2017, said the report named ”Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe.”

“At the other end of the spectrum, there are fewer than 100,000 children aged 0-5 in seven less populated countries: Estonia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Montenegro,” said the report.

The proportion of the children aged 0-5 to the total population stands against highest for Turkey, with 9.6 percent, whereas for the European Union (EU-28), this ratio stands at 6.1 percent, according to the report.

The report also includes data on participation rates in early childhood education and care (ECEC). 

Among the countries analyzed, the lowest ECEC participation rate of children between age 4 and the starting age of compulsory primary education was in North Macedonia (39.5 percent) and Turkey (54.7 percent), the report said.  

“In 2017, on average in the EU-28, 95.4 percent of children in this age group were attending ECEC. The participation rate is higher than the EU benchmark in 17 European countries [15 EU countries]. The rates are very close to the target [higher than 90 percent, but lower than 95 percent] in seven additional EU countries,” the report said.