Recent findings have shown that women in Turkey outlive their male counterparts by almost five years, state-run Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) confirmed yesterday.

The 2014-2016 statistics revealed that Turkish citizens have an average life expectancy of 78 years. However, that number is 75.3 when it comes to men and 80.7 for women.

Earlier in 2013, the average life expectancy was 76.3, with 73.7 years for men and 79.4 years for women, TurkStat said.

For 15-year-olds, the minimum age when one can start working in Turkey, the average remaining life expectancy was 64.2 years. For males, it was 61.5 years compared to 66.8 years for females.

The average remaining life expectancy for people currently 50 years of age was 30.5 years in general, or 28.2 years for men and 32.7 years for women.

Despite remarkable economic growth and improvements in social welfare, Turkey lags behind in its ambition to increase its life expectancy rates. Turkey, like the other developing nations, faces the risk of a rapidly aging population.

Projections made previously by TurkStat show that the number of elderly people will increase to 10.2 percent by 2023 and rise even further in the following decade. Experts link these expectations to a decline in fertility and new treatments being available to increase longevity.

Ankara seeks to encourage population growth in the country and hopes to boost numbers by offering incentives such as longer paid leave and social benefits for larger families.

Since his tenure as prime minister, current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued to promote population growth, advocating that families should have at least three children.

Meanwhile, recent reforms by the government, which focus on social benefits and female employment, have taken the slowly aging population into consideration.