Life expectancy for Turkish citizens decreases to 77.7 years

ANKARA

Türkiye’s life expectancy for citizens has decreased to 77.7 years, according to the latest report released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) on April 26.

The report, which covers the period of 2019-2021, revealed that the life expectancy for Turkish citizens decreased by 0.4 years compared to the previous report. This decline is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected millions of people worldwide and caused a significant increase in mortality rates.

The report also reveals that women continue to live longer than men in Türkiye, with a life expectancy of 80.4 years compared to 75 years for men. However, both genders experienced a decrease in life expectancy compared to the previous report.

In terms of age groups, the biggest decrease was seen in the 85 and older category, where the life expectancy decreased by 1.6 years. This is a significant decline, given that this age group is already considered to be at high risk of health complications.

The report also highlights differences in life expectancy between different regions of the country. The provinces with the highest life expectancy were found to be Istanbul, İzmir, and Ankara, with 81.1, 80.4, and 79.8 years respectively. In contrast, the provinces with the lowest life expectancy were Şırnak, Hakkari, and Muş, with 72.5, 73.1, and 73.2 years respectively.

For 15-year-olds, the minimum age to start working, the average remaining life expectancy was 63.6, 61 years for males and 66.4 years for females,” it noted.

Data from the statistics authority also showed that the average remaining life expectancy at age 30 was 49 years (46.5 years for men and 51.6 years for women) and at age 50 was 29.9 years (27.6 years for men and 32.3 years for women).

“In Türkiye for 65-year-olds, the average remaining life span was 17.3 years in the 2017-2019 years, 15.4 years for males and 18.9 years for females. In other words, for 65-year-olds, women are expected to live 3.5 years more than men on average,” TÜİK explained.

The indicator of “healthy life years,” defined as the number of years of life at a certain age without health problems limiting their activities of daily life, was calculated for age zero as 58.3 years for the total population, 59.9 years for males and 56.8 years for females in Türkiye.

Türkiye’s population hit 85.2 million as of end-2022, while the population growth rate dropped from 12.7 per thousand in 2021 to 7.1 per thousand in 2022, TÜİK announced in early February.

Nearly 600,000 people were added to the country’s population, of which 31,800 were foreign nationals, in 2022, according to TÜİK’s address-based population registration system.

“Male population was 42.7 million and female population was 42.5 million. While 50.1 percent of the total population were males, 49.9 percent of the total population were females,” the country’s statistical body said in a statement.

While comparing the data of 2007 and 2022, it showed that the population of older people has increased across the country. The rate of the elderly population increased from 7.1 percent in 2007 to 9.9 percent in 2022.

On the contrary, during this period, the rate of the population of children under 14 fell sharply from 26.4 percent to 22 percent.