Fewer families, more one-person households in past five years: Survey

ANKARA

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The average household size in Turkey, which was 3.69 people in 2012, fell to 3.35 in 2019, a downward trend indicating the number of children families in the country were having was declining, according to statistics and the results of a life satisfaction survey carried out by the Turkish Statistical Institution (TÜİK).

As the share of households consisting of single nuclear families was 67.4 percent in 2014, this figure decreased to 65.1 percent in 2019, the report said.

The share of households, defined as extended families and consisting of at least one nuclear family and other persons, decreased from 16.7 percent in 2014 to 15.0 percent in 2019.

The proportion of single-person households increased from 13.9 percent in 2014 to 16.9 percent in 2019.

The province with the highest average household size was the eastern province of Şırnak with 6.11 people, while the province with the lowest average household size was the western province of Çanakkale with 2.63 people.

The province with the highest single-person household rate was the eastern province of Tunceli with 26.4 percent.

As the highest share of spending made by households was 23.7 percent for consumption purposes, housing and rent expenditures took the second place with 20.3 percent, and food and non-alcoholic beverages took third place with 18.3 percent.

Spending groups with the lowest share in total consumption expenditures were health with 2.2 percent, educational services with 2.3 percent, and entertainment and culture with 2.9 percent.

The proportion of individuals aged 18 and over who stated that they are most happy with their families was 74.1 percent in 2019.

As 79.5 percent of men stated that they were happy with their families, this rate was 68.8 percent for women in Turkey. The proportion of men who stated that they were most happy with their children was 7.4 percent, while women were 18.1 percent.

The proportion of individuals aged 16 and over and who married a relative in their last marriage was 8.5 percent.

The southeastern province of Mardin was the province with the most common consanguineous marriage with 20.8 percent, Edirne, in the northwest, was the province with the lowest proportion of individuals who had consanguineous marriage at 1.1 percent.

Statistics revealed that 5.9 percent of official marriages in 2010 were consanguineous marriages, and this rate decreased continuously in the following years to 5.0 percent in 2014 and 4.0 percent in 2019.

Research results revealed that girls are encouraged to do more housework than boys in a household in Turkey.

Among the children in the five-17 age group, the proportion of children helping their families in housework was 45.5 percent. This rate was 40.0 percent for boys and 51.3 percent for girls.