Türkiye’s total fertility rate fell to 1.42 children per woman in 2025, remaining below the population replacement level for a ninth consecutive year, official data showed.

The number of live births stood at 895,374 last year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released on Thursday. Boys accounted for 51.4% of newborns, while girls made up 48.6%.

The fertility rate, which refers to the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her reproductive years, was 2.38 in 2001. It has been declining steadily since 2014 and remained well below the replacement threshold of 2.1 in 2025.

The decline has spread across the country. In 2017, 57 provinces had fertility rates below the replacement level. By 2025, that number had risen to 76. The number of provinces with rates below 1.5 also jumped from four to 59 over the same period.

Şanlıurfa recorded the highest fertility rate last year, at 3.15 children per woman, followed by Şırnak and Mardin. Bartın had the lowest rate, followed by Izmir, Eskişehir, Ankara and Zonguldak.

Türkiye’s fertility rate remained above the EU average of 1.34 recorded in 2024. Among EU countries, Bulgaria had the highest rate and Malta the lowest.

The data also showed major differences by education and settlement type. Women with primary school education had the highest fertility rate, while women with higher education had the lowest. Rural areas recorded higher fertility than medium-density urban areas and densely populated cities.

The crude birth rate also continued to fall, dropping from 20.3 births per 1,000 people in 2001 to 10.4 in 2025.

Motherhood is increasingly taking place at later ages. In 2001, the highest fertility rate was among women aged 20 to 24, while in 2025 it was among women aged 25 to 29. The adolescent fertility rate also dropped sharply, from 49 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 in 2001 to nine last year.

The average age of mothers giving birth rose from 26.7 in 2001 to 29.4 in 2025. For first-time mothers, the average age was 27.5.

Artvin had the highest average age for first-time mothers, followed by Istanbul and Tunceli, while Şanlıurfa had the lowest, followed by Ağrı and Muş.

The average interval between a mother’s last two births also widened, reaching 4.8 years in 2025. Multiple births accounted for 3.3% of all births, most of them twins.

First births made up 42.8% of all births in 2025, up from 36.1% in 2015, while the shares of second, third and later births declined.