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The share of children in Turkey’s population has fallen to its lowest level since records began to be kept in 1935, the Anka news agency reported, citing data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Children aged 0 to 17, defined as the child population by the United Nations, made up 24.8 percent of the population at the end of 2025, totaling 21.4 million out of 86.1 million people, TurkStat said in its annual “Statistics on Child, 2025” report, released on Monday.
The figure marks a continued decline from previous decades. Children accounted for 48.5 percent of the population in 1970 and 41.8 percent in 1990 before dropping to 24.8 percent in 2025.
The share fell from 25.5 percent in 2024, reflecting a steady downward trend driven by declining birth rates and demographic changes.
Boys made up 51.3 percent of the child population, while girls accounted for 48.7 percent.
Projections suggest the trend will continue. TurkStat estimates that children will make up 22.1 percent of the population by 2030, falling to 17.9 percent by 2040 and to 14.5 percent by the end of the century.
The decline is also reflected in fertility rates. Between 2013 and 2023, Turkey’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime, fell from 2.11 to 1.51, according to other TurkStat data.
Among 34 European countries, Turkey recorded the sharpest decline over that period, both in absolute terms and as a percentage.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly warned about falling birth rates, calling the trend “a threat to Turkey’s future” and urging families to have more children.
Alarmed by the trend, the government last year declared 2025 the “Year of the Family” and announced new incentives aimed at encouraging childbirth.
Critics, however, say persistently high inflation, which has been in double-digits for years, rising education costs, youth unemployment and limited social support have made starting families increasingly difficult, raising doubts about whether policy measures alone can reverse the decline.
The distribution of the child population varies widely across the country.
Şanlıurfa had the highest share of children at 43.3 percent, followed by Şırnak at 39.2 percent and Mardin at 36.7 percent.
The lowest shares were recorded in the eastern province of Tunceli and the northwestern provinces of Edirne and Kırklareli, where children accounted for between 15.9 percent and 17.7 percent.
Turkey had nearly 27 million households in 2025 and at least one child lived in 41.9 percent of them, the data showed.
Despite the decline, Turkey’s child population share remains well above the European Union average. Across the EU’s 27 member states, children accounted for roughly 17–18 percent of the population in recent years, according to Eurostat data.
Ireland had the highest share among EU countries at 22.7 percent, followed by France and Sweden at 20.4 percent each. Malta, Italy and Portugal recorded the lowest shares, ranging from 14.5 percent to 15.5 percent.
At 24.8 percent, Turkey’s proportion of children remains significantly higher than that of any EU member state, even as the country’s demographic profile continues to shift.