Türkiye becomes 18th most populous country, official report reveals

ANKARA

Türkiye, with a population of 84.68 million, ranks 18th among 195 countries in terms of population size as it constitutes 1.1 percent of the world’s total population, the U.N. reported on July 11, World Population Day.

While the proportion of child population, 0-17 age group, in Türkiye was higher than those of EU member countries with 26.9 percent, the countries with the highest child population proportion among the European countries were Ireland with 24.5 percent, France with 21.1 percent and Sweden with 21 percent.

According to the U.N., the proportion of youth population (aged between 15 and 24) in Türkiye was 15.3 percent, which is higher than all of the EU member countries, while the countries with the highest young population proportion among EU were Greek Cyprus with 13.5 percent, Ireland with 12.4 percent and Denmark with 12.2 percent.

In 2021, the proportion of the elderly population, aged 65 and over, in the total population of Türkiye was 9.7 percent, which is lower than the elderly population proportion of EU member countries. The countries with the highest proportion of the elderly population in the European Union were Italy with 23.6 percent, Portugal with 23.1 percent and Finland with 23 percent.

The U.N. estimated the world population for 2021 to be 7.87 million.

According to the U.N., the country with the highest population was China with 1.44 billion, followed by India with 1.39 billion, and the United States with 332 million.

These three countries made up 40.3 percent of the world’s total population.

The countries with the lowest child population proportion were Italy with 15.7 percent, Portugal with 15.9 percent and Greece with 16.5 percent, while the countries with the lowest youth population proportion were Latvia with 8.3 percent, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Czechia with 9 percent, Slovenia and Estonia with 9.1 percent.

According to the U.N., the countries with the lowest proportion of the elderly population were Luxembourg with 14.6 percent, Greek Cyprus with 14.7 percent, and Ireland with 14.9 percent.

In 1989, the U.N. recommended that July 11 be observed worldwide as World Population Day to focus attention on the urgency of population issues such as the importance of family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights, in the context of overall development plans in order to find solutions for overpopulation issues.

World Population Day was inspired by the interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987 - the approximate date when the world’s population reached 5 billion.