As of December 31st, 2012, Turkey's population had reached 75,627,384. With the drop by 12 percent to the thousand in the rise in population, the nation's average age has gone up from 29.7 to 30.1, thereby solidifying Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan's insistence on the necessity of three children to be born to young couples.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has released the 2012 results of their "Address-Based Population Record System." The population last year in Turkey increased by 903,115 compared to the year prior, bringing the total number up to 75,627,384. The population growth rate, which was 13.5 percent out of a thousand in 2011, has dropped to 12 in one thousand in 2012. According to Erdoğan it is this very drop in the population growth rate which may eventually turn Turkey into a nation of elderly and therefore the Prime Minister is calling on families to give birth to three children each.
MEN ARE THE MAJORITY
While the population of the 0-14 age group has regressed by 24.9 percent to (18,857,179) the rate of population for those 65 years of age or older has increased to 7.5 percent (5,682,003).
The average age in Turkey has also seen a rise. In 2011, the average age was 29.7 whereas in 2012, that number increased to 30.1. The average age for males is 29.5, while the average age for women is 30.6.
The three provinces that have the highest age average are Sinop (37.5), Çanakkale (37.2) and Balıkesir (37.2), while the lowest age averages were seen in Şırnak (18.5), Şanlıurfa (18.9) and Ağrı (19.5).
The following are a list of other figures released by TÜİK:
The male population at 37,956,168 makes up 50.2 percent, while the female population at 37,671,216 makes up the remaining 48 percent.
The number of urban residents in provincial and district centers has increased from 76.8 to 77.3 percent.
Istanbul has the highest population of any city in the nation at 13,854,740 which accounts for 18.3 percent of Turkey's overall population. Istanbul is followed by Ankara, which has a population of 4,965,542. Izmir comes in third with 4,005,459 residents and is followed by Bursa which has a population of 2,688,171. Adana followed Izmir with 2,125,635 residents. At 75,797, Bayburt was the province with the smallest population.
The population amongst the working class rose by 1.5 percent this year. The 15-64 age group in Turkey went from 67.4 percent in 2011 to 67.6 (51,088,202) in 2012, which was a 0.2 point increase.
