Nearly 10 million children in Türkiye live in poverty: Report

A study on child poverty published by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Türkiye (TEPAV) revealed that the number of children living in poverty in Türkiye has surged to 9.59 million.

According to the statistics published in 2023, 7.03 million children in the 0-17 age group live in poverty. The rate of poor children was measured as 31.3%. In the study, although an upward trend was observed compared to 2017, the high rate of increase in some age groups drew attention.

When per capita income, which is another statistical definition, is taken into account in the calculation of poverty instead of equivalent household individual income (equalizing the number of people living in households to create individual income), the poverty rate of children living below 60% of the median income is calculated as 42.2%. The number of poor children reaches 9.59 million.

When the age breakdown is analyzed according to per capita income, the poverty rate among infants and children reaches higher levels. According to 2022 data, the poverty rate is 41.4% for infants (0-2 years), 43.8% for children (3-14 years), 29.9% for youth (15-24 years) and 18.2% for the population aged 25+. A large proportion of infants in Türkiye live in poverty.

In the Hakan Yilmaz study, also published by TEPAV, the child poverty rate was determined as 34.4% in 2023 according to the EU agency Eurostat’s methodology and Hakan Yilmaz’s own calculations.

The rate, which was in the 33% to 34% range until 2020, exceeded 34% as of 2021. The study found that 2 million children live in “deep poverty.” In the study, it was emphasized that while backward regulations were pointed out in the incentives for families such as taxes, etc. for children, policies for protection were behind the EU average.