Yusuf, Zeynep Turkey's favorite baby names last year


According to statistics from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), around 1,337,504 babies were born in 2014. The most common male name for babies was Yusuf, while Zeynep was the most popular for female babies. According to birth statistics, 51.4 percent of the newborns were boys while 48.6 percent of the babies were girls. The most common names given for boys were Yusuf, Berat and Mustafa, while the most common names for girls were Zeynep, Elif and Hiranur. By the end of 2014, the population of Turkey was more than 77 million and the number of children was more than 22 million. TurkStat statistics also revealed that children comprise 29.4 percent of Turkey's population. When the child population was analyzed according to age group, children between from birth to 4 years made up 27.6 percent of all children, while children between the ages of 5 and 9 made up 27.7 percent. Children between the ages of 10 to 14 made up 27.4 percent of the child population, while those between the ages of 15 and 17 comprise 17.4 percent of the child population.The provinces with the highest number of children were Şırnak and Şanlıurfa with 47.8 percent each. The eastern provinces of Turkey, such as Ağrı and Siirt, followed these provinces with 45.7 and 45.2 percent, respectively. With more than more than 1 million children living there, 26.1 percent of Ankara's population was made up of children. Tunceli, Edirne and Çanakkale were among the cities with the lowest number of children, whose percentages were 18, 19.3 and 19.6, respectively. In terms of regions, the southeastern Anatolian region had the highest child population with 43 percent, while the eastern Marmara region had the lowest child population with 21.9 percent.

In 2013, nearly 23,000 children lost their lives in Turkey. Among these deaths, 55.7 percent of them were boys, while 44.3 were girls. The highest rate of death in children was in the southeastern Anatolian region with 20 percent, the lowest rate was in the east Marmara region with 2.4 percent. When cause of death was examined, it was found that children belonging to the 1-17 age group died mostly from "external injuries and poisoning" in both 2013 and 2014. This was followed by diseases related to the nervous system and sensory organs, respectively, as well as benign and malignant tumors.