ISTANBUL — Turkey's statistics agency released new figures on households, their structure and family's expenses as well as Turkish people's view of family.

The statistics cover household trends from 2012-2013. Turkstat has been releasing family and household statistics since 2012 on the occasion of National Family Week from May 12 to 18.

According to the data households spent the most on accommodation i.e. rents at 25.8 percent. This was followed by food and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, cigarette and tobacco at 23.8 percent and 21.1 percent at transportation and telecommunications. The area where the families spent least was health services at 1.8 percent. Households spent 2.3 percent for education and 3.2 percent for entertainment and cultural activities according to the statistics.

Single individual households comprise 8.6 percent of all households and extended families 13.5 percent. The number of households with a single individual rose to 20,220,578 from 19,658,387 in 2011 and households with a single parent increased to 8.1 percent in 2012 from 7.8 percent in 2011. Nuclear families made up 54 percent of the households and households with parents without children made up 15.8 percent of the overall households in Turkey.

Extended families with three generations of a family living together comprised 13.5 percent of households.

The percentage of households with widowed women dropped to 84.9 percent in 2012 from 85.7 percent in 2011 while the percentage of widowed fathers rose to 15.1 percent from 14.3 percent.

The statistics also show 40.3 percent of divorces took place within the first five years of marriage in 2013 while 21.5 percent were within the first six to 10 years of the marriage. The number of people living alone at the age of 65 and above rose to 20.5 percent in 2012 from 10.5 percent in 2008.

On standards of living, statistics show 13.4 percent of households with single individuals and 30.4 percent of households of widowed mothers and fathers with at least one child, spent 2012 below the poverty threshold.

The statistics also showed that there are 2,973 foster families in the country and the highest number of foster families are in İzmir, a western city, with 299. Istanbul, Ankara, Kayseri in central Turkey and Bursa in the northwest follow İzmir. "A proper family life" dominates people's view of a reputable place in the society, according to Turkstat's survey and this was followed by "living in line with moral values." Nine-and-a-half percent of the participants in the survey placed money first as a way to gain a reputation in society.

The survey shows 52.1 percent of adults regard one's relationship with their family life as central to how they view of those people. Family life is deemed most important in Bitlis, a province in the eastern Turkey and it is followed by Hakkari, another province in the southeast. Interestingly, Şırnak, a province in the vicinity of Bitlis and Hakkari is the place where the family life of others is least important for people's views of one another. Şırnak was followed by Balıkesir in the northwest and Manisa in the western Turkey.

Turks' relations with their relatives or their satisfaction with those relations increase as they age. Senior citizens expressed the most satisfaction with close ties with their relatives according to the survey.