Turkey's elderly population rises 17 percent in 5 years

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - The elderly population has increased by 17 percent in the last five years and reached 6.895,385 million in 2017 in Turkey, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Thursday.

In a statement released under the framework of "Respect for Elderly Week”, TurkStat said the elderly population, defined as 65 years and above, was 5.891,694 million in 2013.

"While the proportion of the elderly population in the total population was 7.7 percent in 2013, it increased to 8.5 percent in 2017; 44 percent of the elderly population were males and 56 percent were females," it said.

According to the population projections, the proportion of elderly population in Turkey is expected to reach 10.2 percent in 2023.

In 2017, 8.9 percent of the world population was elderly. Monaco with 32.2 percent, Japan with 27.9 percent and Germany with 22.1 percent were three countries with highest proportion of elderly people.

"Turkey was in the 66th rank among 167 countries," it said.