Türkiye’s elderly population aged 65 and above has increased by 22.6% in the past five years and has reached the figure of 8.45 million people in 2022, the official statistics released Friday revealed.

The number of elderly people increased to 8.45 million from 6.89 million in 2017, thus accounting for 9.9% of the total population in 2022. Likewise, the proportion of the elderly population in the total population stood at around 8.5% in 2017, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

In 2017, the highest number of senior citizens belonged to the retirement age group between 65-74 years, comprising 61.6% of the elderly people, while 29.7% fall within the 75-84 age group and some 8.6% in the 85 and over age group. In 2022, 64.5% of the citizens belonged to the 65-74 age group, 27.7% were in the 75-84 age group and 7.9% were in the 85 and over.

The number of elderly people aged 100 and over, constituting 0.1% of the elderly population, stood at 5,344 in 2022.

The 2022 statistics shared by TurkStat also indicated that women dominate the senior citizens' age population with 55.6%, compared to 44.4% of the male elderly population.

TurkStat also underlined that the age dynamics of the country's population were constantly changing and noted that passing the threshold of 10% for elderly people in the total population was an indicator of an aging population, something Türkiye is too close to now. The institute, however, added that it was part of a "global aging process."

According to population projections, it is predicted that the proportion of the elderly population would grow and reach 12.9% by 2030.

Although Türkiye still has a significant number of younger citizens compared to countries with a higher number of elderly, the aging population is quite high numerically. According to population projections, it is predicted that the median age will be 35 years, 6 months in 2030, 38 years and 5 months in 2040, 42 years and 3 months in 2060 and 45 years in 2080.

According to the United Nations world population estimates, the world population for 2022 is estimated to be 7.975 billion and the elderly population accounts for nearly 783 million people.

As per the U.N.'s estimates, 9.8% of the world's population was composed of the elderly last year. On the list of the top three countries with the highest proportion of the elderly population, Japan stood first with 29.9%, followed by Italy where the whole general population is composed of 24.1% elderly citizens. Finland closed the list with an overall of 23.3% senior group citizens.

At the same time, Türkiye ranked 66th among 184 countries. The province with the highest rate of the elderly population in 2022 was the northern province of Sinop with 20.2% in the year 2022. Sinop was followed by other provinces located on the Black Sea coast, Kastamonu with 19.3% and Giresun with 18.0%.

The lowest ratio of elderly in the population was recorded in the southeastern provinces, with Şırnak being one of the youngest provinces in the country, with an elderly population of only 3.5%, ahead of its neighbor Hakkari and Sanlıurfa province – which had 4.0%, and 4.1% elders among their population, respectively.

TurkStat statistics for 2022 also determined that every one in four Turkish households had at least one person aged 65 and over, while approximately 1.63 million Turkish citizens categorized as elderly were living alone. The western province of Burdur had the highest rate of elderly people living alone, with 35% as per data, while Hakkarı was at the list's bottom, with 7.8%.

Along with a rise in their population, the education level of the elderly has increased simultaneously. The rate of illiterate elderly individuals declined from 19.6% recorded in 2017 to 14.4% in 2021, although it was found that the proportion of elderly women that are illiterate still stands higher compared to the male population, the data underscored.

Overall, the literacy rate among the elderly population which was 80.4% in 2017, rose to 85.6% in 2021.

According to the results of the income and living conditions survey issued by TurkStat, the poverty rate for the elderly population dropped from 15.5% in 2017 to 11.4% in 2021.

Among the other data and life satisfaction surveys undertaken by TurkStat, it was revealed that some 57.7% of elderly individuals declare themselves as ''happy," while the number of them being keen on new technologies and internet usage also grew from 11.3% to 36.6%, between 2017-2021.