Almost Half Of The Poor People In Turkey Are Childeren

- Almost half of the poor people in Turkey are childeren of 0-17 age, as the share of them in total population falls by 0.6 percentage points over the last two years, according to the Statistics on Child data released by Turkstat on Wednesday.

Share of the childeren in total population fell to 29.4 percent with 22.8 million in total 77.7 million population at the end of 2014, from 30.0 percent in 2012 and 29.7 percent in 2013.

According to the 2013 results of Income and Living Conditions survey, 7.4 million childeren were living in poverty, 44.3 percent of total 16.7 million poor people, almost half of the total poor people in the country.

The highest proportions of childeren were seen in the Southeast Anatolia with 55.8 percent, in the Northeast Anatolia with 54.3 percent and in the Centraleast Anatolia with 49.6 percent, while the lowest proportions were seen in the West Marmara with 30.4 percent, in the Aegean with 34.3 percent and in the East Black Sea with 36.3 percent.

While the childeren are facing poverty in Turkey, children convicts aged 12-17 received in to prison were 6 thousand 132 in 2013 at 3.8 percent of total criminals, up from 1.5 percent in 2009. As the type of crime was examined in the children aged 12-17 received in to prison in 2013, theft took the first place by 35.3 percent.Theft was followed by robbery with 14.5 percent and assault with 11.2 percent.

Children died mostly as result of external causes of injury and poisoning

In Turkey, 22 thousand 464 children died, in 2013, mostly died from “External causes of injury and poisoning”. This was followed by “Diseases of the nervous system and the sense organs” and “Neoplasms” for the same age group.

According to road traffic accident statistics, in the traffic accidents occurred in 2013, 48 thousand 307 children were injured, while 413 were killed. 48.9 percent of killed children were aged 0-9, while 23 percent of killed children were aged 10-14 and 28.1 percent of killed children were aged 15-17.

According to Body-Mass Index 8.3 percent of children was obese

According to 2013 data of Ministry of Health, 2.1 percent of children, aged 7-8 in Turkey, was thin, 75.5 percent was normal, 14.2 percent was overweight and 8.3 percent was obese. Obesity proportion was 10 percent for boys and 6.6 percent for girls.

53.5 percent of children participated in social networks

According to the 2013 results of Turkstat, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Usage in Households and by Individuals survey, 53.5 percent of children aged 6-15 participated in social networks. This proportion was 57.8 percent for boys, and 48.4 percent for girls.

The highest proportion of children were in Şırnak and Şanlıurfa

When the proportion of children in the total population was analyzed according to the provinces, Şırnak and Şanlıurfa had the highest proportion of children in 2014 with 47.8 percent. Şırnak and Şanlıurfa was followed by Ağrı with 45.7 percent and Siirt with 45.2 percent. The first three provinces with the lowest proportion of children were Tunceli with 18 percent, Edirne with 19.3 percent and Çanakkale with 19.6 percent.