With health care services becoming more available to the masses, life expectancy around the world has increased dramatically in the last few decades.

Currently, around 9 percent of the world's entire population is elderly which means one in every eight people is over the age of 60. It is expected that the elderly population will hit 22 percent by 2050.

According to the United Nations' Population Fund, 26 percent of the world's population is between the ages of 10 and 24 while 65 percent is between the ages of 15 and 64. While the life expectancy for men is approximately 70 and for women, it is 74.

Worldwide there are 700 million people over the age of 60, according to a 2017 population study. The number of elderly people is predicted to reach 1.4 billion by 2030 and 2 billion by 2050.

This phenomenon will be more rapid in the developed countries according to U.N.

Turkey's elderly population has increased by 17 percent in the last five years according to official figures. There are concerns over projections that the aging rate of the populace will steadily increase in the near future.

Official figures released by the state-run Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) show that the elderly population - people 65 and over - increased 17 percent from 2013 to 2017, to a total of 6.8 million.

Average life expectancy at birth for Turkish citizens reached 78 years during the 2015-2017 period, TurkStat reported last month. According to the report, life expectancy at birth was 75.3 years for men and 80.8 years for women.