Average life expectancy increases by two years in Turkey

Average life expectancy for Turkish citizens increased by 1.7 years and reached 78 for the years of 2013 and 2014, according to the data released by Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Women statistically outlived men by 5.4 years as average life expectancy stood at 75.3 years for men and 80.7 years for women. In previous statistics released by Turkstat for 2013, average life expectancy was 76.3 in general, with 73.7 years for men and 79.4 years for women.

For 15 year olds, who are at the minimum age to start working, the average remaining life expectancy is 64.3 years in general, 61.6 years for males and 66.9 years for females.

The average remaining life expectancy for people at the age of 50 is 30.6 years in general. This life span is 28.3 years for males while it is 32.9 years for females.

For 65 year olds, the average remaining life span is 17.9 years in general, 16.2 years for males and 19.4 years for females.

Turkey's eastern Tunceli and southwestern Muğla provinces had the highest life expectancy with 80.5 years, followed by southeastern Mardin province with 80.3 years. Males had the highest life expectancy in Muğla with 77.7 years, whereas females had the highest life expectancy in Tunceli with 85.7 years.

Provinces with lowest life expectancy were eastern Van and Ağrı with 75.6, northeastern Ardahan with 76.6 and southern Kilis with 75 years. Males had the lowest life expectancy with 73.2 years in Kilis and females had the lowest life expectancy with 77.5 years in Ağrı.

With life expectancies of 78.7 years in general, 75.8 for males and 81.5 for females, Turkey's most populous Istanbul province stood above the averages of the country.