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Turkish Society
Population of Turkey
In 2005 the estimated population of Turkey was
69,661,000. The growth rate, which has decreased sharply in recent decades, was
about 1.1 percent per year. In 2000 some 65 percent of the population was
classified as urban (compared with 27 percent in 1960), and the process of
urbanization is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. In 2005 overall
population density was 90.4 people per square kilometer. About 25 percent of the
population is concentrated around the Sea of Marmara. The fastest rate of growth
is in the southeast, which in 2003 accounted for about 10 percent of the total
population. In 2005 immigration and emigration rates were equal.
Demography of Turkey
In 2005 some 26 percent of the population was
14 years of age or younger, and 6.7 percent was 65 or older. The birthrate,
which has declined significantly in recent decades, was 16.8 births per 1,000
population. The fertility rate was 1.94 children per woman. The death rate was
5.96 deaths per 1,000 population, and the infant mortality rate was 41 deaths
per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy, which has increased rapidly since 1960,
was 69.9 years for males and 74.9 years for females.
Ethnic Groups in Turkey
Approximately more than 85 percent of the
population is Turk, and an estimated 10-13 percent is Kurd and Zaza. Smaller
minority groups include Arabs, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and Dönme (a small,
separate group of Muslims, concentrated in Edirne and Istanbul, whose forbears
converted from Judaism). In recent decades, the Armenian, Greek, and Jewish
populations have declined steadily.
Languages
The official language is
Turkish (Kurdish,
Arabic, Armenian, and Greek also are used). The Latin alphabet has been in use
since it superseded the Arabic alphabet in 1928.
Beliefs in Turkey
Majority of the population is Muslim, mostly
Sunni and Alevi. Christianity (Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic) and
Judaism are the other religions in practice. There are also significant number
of Atheists. Beginning in the 1980s, the role of religion in the state has been
a divisive issue, as influential factions challenged the complete secularization
called for by Kemalism and the observance of Islamic practices experienced a
substantial revival. In the early 2000s, Islamic groups challenged the concept
of the secular state with increasing vigor after the Erdoğan government had
calmed the issue in 2003. The Alevi community, a group of Muslims, makes up
10–25 percent of the population.
Education and Literacy in
Turkey
In 2003 Turkey’s overall literacy rate was 86.5
percent, but the rate was only 78.7 percent for females. Eight years of primary
education are mandatory between the ages of six and 14, and in 2001 the
enrollment of male students of those ages was nearly 100 percent. Female
enrollment was substantially lower in some rural areas. Three or more years of
secondary education are available in general, open, and vocational high schools.
Islamic Imam Hatip secondary schools expanded rapidly and achieved elite status
in the 1990s, but the government has discouraged them since the late 1990s, and
their popularity dwindled in the early 2000s. The high-school dropout rate in
Turkey has been high compared with Western countries. Below university level,
about 95 percent of students attend public schools, but inadequacies of the
public system increasingly motivate middle-class parents to seek private
education. The public program generally needs curriculum updates and suffers
from over-reliance on rote memorization and standardized examinations. Teachers
are poorly trained and paid, and classes are large. Rural schools generally are
poorly equipped. In 2001 some 1,273 institutions of higher learning were in
operation. Except for the Open University, entrance is by national examination,
which limited university attendance to about 18 percent of the population in
2002. In 2004 the state budget allocated US$ 6.7 billion, about 6 percent of
total expenditures, for education.
Health Care System in Turkey
Health care in Turkey is dominated by a
centralized state system run by the Ministry of Health. However, in 2003 the
governing Justice and Development Party introduced a sweeping health reform
program aimed at increasing the ratio of private to state health provision and
making health care available to a larger share of the population. In its initial
stages, the reform program has encountered significant opposition. At 3.5
percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001, Turkey’s public expenditure on
national health was substantially below average for a developed country. In the
early 2000s, about 63 percent of health expenditures came from public sources.
In 2003 there was one doctor for every 700 people, one nurse for every 590
people, and one hospital bed for every 400 people. The rural population is
poorly served by the health-care system, which is much more developed in the
western half of the country. Between 80 and 90 percent of the population,
including self-employed workers, have health care provided by the national
pension system, but the low quality of care encourages the use of private health
providers in urban areas. Although the private health industry has grown rapidly
since the 1990s, only about 2 percent of the population, mainly in urban areas,
has private health insurance. In 2005 about 75 percent of private health
expenditures were out-of-pocket rather than being covered by insurance.
The most frequent causes of death, in order of
frequency, are infectious and parasitic diseases, cancer, heart disease, and
cerebrovascular diseases. Since the 1980s, the occurrence of measles, pertussis,
typhoid fever, and diphtheria has decreased sharply because of improved
availability of potable water. More than 80 percent of one-year-olds received
inoculations against childhood diseases in 2004. Between 1980 and 2004, the
infant mortality rate decreased by 65 percent. In 2002 an estimated 1,515 adults
in Turkey were infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); more recent
statistics are not available. Reportedly, in 2002 sexual activity was the cause
of 58.4 percent of HIV cases, and drug abuse was the cause of 6.9 percent of
cases. No cause is given for the remaining cases; commercial blood donation has
been abolished in order to eliminate that cause of HIV transmission.
Welfare System in Turkey
The state welfare and pension system provides
health, welfare, and pension payments to a large majority of citizens. The
Social Insurance Law prescribes maternity, illness, on-the-job injury,
retirement, and death insurance for all workers except those in agriculture and
those who are self-employed. Self-employed workers, including those in
agriculture, receive similar coverage under the Social Security Organization for
the Self-Employed. In 2000 compulsory unemployment insurance was added to the
coverage of the existing law. In the early 2000s, reforms were introduced to
make Turkey’s system comply more fully with European Union standards. In 2002 a
voluntary private pension system was established as a supplement to the
mandatory state system. Contributions in the private system are invested in
personal retirement accounts, making pension payments dependent on account
performance. However, in 2005 mandatory social security contributions remained
high, equaling one-third of gross salaries. In 2003 an estimated 29 percent of
Turkey’s population lived below the poverty level, which was about US$ 130 per
month for a single individual. However, the poverty rate was disproportionately
high in the population of the rural east. |
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