Turkish baby deaths most in Europe

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The number of babies who died before reaching their first birthday increased in 2012 to 14,845 from 14,511 in 2011. DHA photo

Infant mortality numbers in Turkey increased in 2012, marking the worst rates in Europe, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) yesterday.

The number of babies who died before reaching their first birthday increased in 2012 to 14,845 from 14,511 in 2011 in Turkey. Turkey’s infant mortality rate tops the rate of European countries with 11.6 per mille in 2012, according to TÜİK data.

The average infant mortality rate of the 27 European Union countries is 3.9 per mille in 2011, according to the EU’s statistical office EUROSTAT data. This rate was 0.9 per mille in Iceland, 2.1 per mille in Sweden, 2.4 per mille in Norway, according to EUROSTAT.

Akdeniz University Medicine Faculty Academic Sevtap Velipaşaoğlu Güney told Anatolia news agency yesterday that the increase in 2012 infant mortality rates must be examined. Güney said that this increase showed that something was wrong, adding that the reasons of these deaths should be revealed.

Güney also said that the 65 percent of infant deaths took place in the first month the baby born.

Meanwhile, the TÜİK data also showed that the number of babies born alive last year increased by 3.1 percent last year with a number of 1.2 million. The total fertility rate was 2.08 children.

The province of Şanlıurfa has the highest total fertility rate in 2012 with 4.39 children per family. It was followed by Şırnak with 4.1 children, Ağrı with 4 children and Siirt with 3.8 children, according to the TÜİK data.