Child labor increased in Turkey in 2022, official figures show

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released the child statistics for the year 2022. According to the report, children make up 26.5 percent of Turkey's population, down from 26.9 percent in 2021.

According to the Address-Based Population Registration System (ADNKS) results, Turkey's population was 85,279,553 people at the end of 2022, with children making up 22,578,378 of them. Boys accounted for 51.3 percent of the child population, while girls accounted for 48.7 percent.

Population projections indicate that the child population rate will be 25.6 percent in 2030, 23.3 percent in 2040, 20.4 percent in 2060, and 19.0 percent in 2080.

Urfa, Şırnak, and Ağrı were the provinces with the highest child population rates, with Urfa leading the way with 44.9 percent followed by Şırnak with 41.4 percent and Ağrı with 39.3 percent.

According to birth statistics, there were 1,079,842 live births in 2021, with 554,041 boys and 525,801 girls. Of the live births, 96.9 percent were single births, 3.0 percent were twins, and 0.1 percent were triplets or more.

Alparslan, Yusuf, and Miraç were the most popular names for baby boys, while Zeynep, Asel, and Defne were the most popular names for baby girls.

Child labor

According to the Household Labor Force Survey 2022 results, the labor force participation rate of children aged 15-17 was 18.7 percent. In 2021, this rate was 16.4 percent. When the labor force participation rate was examined by gender, it was observed that this rate was 27.0 percent for boys and 10.0 percent for girls. In 2021, this rate was 22.9 percent for boys and 9.5 percent for girls

Education

According to the Ministry of National Education's formal education statistics, the net enrollment rate for five-year-olds in preschool education was 81.6 percent in the 2021-2022 academic year, up from 56.9 percent the previous year. The net enrollment rate for five-year-olds was 81.9 percent for boys and 81.4 percent for girls.

The net enrollment rate for primary school was 93.2 percent, while it was 89.8 percent for secondary school and 89.7 percent for high school.

Bullying

The percentage of 6-17 year-olds who are subjected to bullying by other children at least a few times a month, as reported by their mothers or primary caregivers, was 13.8 percent.

The percentage of children who were teased by other children at least a few times a month was 7.7 percent, while the percentage of children who were intentionally excluded by other children was 7.2 percent.

Meanwhile, 13 percent of students reported feeling excluded at school.

Official child marriages

According to marriage statistics, the percentage of official marriages of girls aged 16-17 among total official marriages was 7.3 percent in 2002, while this rate decreased to 2.0 percent in 2022. In 2021, this rate was 2.3 percent.

On the other hand, the percentage of official marriages of boys in the same age group among total official marriages was 0.5 percent in 2002, while this rate became 0.1 percent in 2022. (AÖ/VK)