Türkiye's average household size decreasing, migration within country on the rise

İstiklal Avenue, İstanbul (Photo: bianet/File)

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has released the 2021 Population and Housing Census based on administrative registers.

Accordingly, the country's population has reached 84,680,273, with the growth rate rising from 5.5 percent to 12.7 percent in a year.

The country's population was 13,648,270 in 1927 when a population census was conducted for the first time after the establishment of the republic in 1923.

While the number of women outnumbered men in the first years of the republic due to the previous war period, the women and men population reached almost equal numbers over the years.

Median age

The median age, one of the important indicators used in the interpretation of the age structure of the population, increased to 33.1 in 2021 from 21.2 in 1935. The median age increased from 19.1 to 32.4 for men and from 23.4 to 33.8 for women in this period.

Working age group

The proportion of the working-age population aged 15-64 increased from 54.7 percent in 1935 to 67.9 percent in 2021.

While the proportion of the child population aged 0-14 was 41.4 percent in 1935, it showed a decreasing trend over the years and declined to 22.4 percent in 2021. The proportion of the elderly population aged 65 and over, which was 3.9 percent in 1935, became 9.7 percent in 2021.

Marital status

The proportion of never-married people is higher among men than women, while the proportion of widowed and divorced people is higher among women than men. On the other hand, it was seen that the proportion of married people, which made up the vast majority, was close to each other for both sexes over the years.

Migration within the country

The proportion of the population migrated across provinces, which was 3.18 percent in the 2007-2008 period, followed a fluctuating course over the years and became 3.28 percent in 2021.

In other words, 2,777,797 people migrated across provinces in Türkiye. Among this population, 47.5 percent were men and 52.5 percent were women.

Non-family households

The proportion of single-person households and multi-person no-family households showed an increase over the years.

There was a decrease in the proportions of one-family households, which are defined as households comprising a couple without children or a couple with at least one child or a lone parent with at least one child, and extended-family households, which are defined as households covering at least one nuclear family household together with non-family member(s). On the other hand, the proportion of nuclear family households composed of lone parents with at least one resident child showed an increase.

Number of households

The number of households, defined as a person living alone or a group of persons living at the same address, with or without any kind of kinship, increased from 21,091,075 in 2014 to 25,329,833 in 2021.

Average household size

The average household size in Türkiye, which was 4 people in 2008, showed a tendency to decrease over the years and became 3.23 people in 2021.

People living in their own dwellings

The share of households owning the dwelling they reside in was 60.7 percent while the share of those living in a rented house was 27.6 percent. The share of those not paying rent despite not living in their own dwellings was 8.4 percent and the share was 0.9 percent for those living in lodging.

Labor force participation rate

The labor force participation rate for the population aged 15 and over was 51.9 percent in Türkiye. It was 69.9 percent for men and 34 percent for women. The employment rate was 46.2 percent for total, 63.3 percent for men and 29.2 percent for women. On the other hand, the unemployment rate was 10.9 percent for total, 9.4 percent for men and 14.1 percent for women. (HA/VK)