Number of lonely hearts in Turkey mounting, data show

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Twice as many women live alone as men in Turkey, with some 781,000 women living alone, but only 359,000 men, data by the Turkish Statistical Institute show. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK

The number of people in Turkey who live alone almost doubled between 2002 and 2010, recent data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) shows.

TÜİK’s information shows that in 2002 only 665,000 people lived alone, but the number had risen to 1,141,000 by 2010. Twice as many women live alone as men, with some 781,000 women living alone, but only 359,000 men. In 2002 these numbers were 492,000 for women and 172,000 for men.

A major shift can be seen in the statistics for 2009, when the number of people living alone rose by 46 percent. Between 2002 and 2010, the number of men living alone rose 108 percent, and the number of women living alone rose 58 percent.

The data shows that 467,000 of people living alone in Turkey are between the ages of 30 and 64, and most of the remainder are over 65.

Feyza Ak Akyol, a professor from Galatasaray University’s sociology department and the head of the Social Research Center, said divorce was increasing rapidly in Turkey.

Akyol explained two main conclusions that can be taken from the results of the research.

“The liberalization of individuals may be the first conclusion, as we see that living a single lifestyle is becoming more and more common in Turkey. This will become more visible in the upcoming ten years in big cities,” Akyol told the Daily News on the phone yesterday.

Akyol says the second conclusion was that Turkish men are dying earlier than women and males in other countries.

“The world average is for men to die five years earlier than women, whereas in Turkey this number is seven,” she added.