Birth rates in Turkey

Currently the South-Eastern part of Turkey has an increasing birth rate; on the other hand the Western part of the Asian country has a decrease of child birth, resulting in the massive increase of the Kurdish population in Turkey. This, however, goes hand in hand with the low economic power of the region, together with the low education levels seen in that part of the country.

The Birth rate in Turkey is 2.02%, according to the recent facts published by the Turkish Statistical Institute. This means that in 2011 1.237.172 babies were born, whilst in 2010 the number was 1.253.309 (i.e. 2.05%).  In Western Turkey the birth rate is 1.5% whilst in the South-East it is 3.4%.

Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has asked the families in the West of the country to have 3 kids in order to balance out the situation. According to another research, in 2023 the population in Turkey will be 82 million, which is a 10% increase. With that in mind, the prime minister wishes to move a part of the population from the South East to the Western part in order to mix the populations, partly solving thus the issue of Kurdistan and the Kurds, who seem to be residing in only one part of the country.