‘Alparslan’ most popular name for boys, ‘Asel’ for girls: TÜİK

Turkish parents mostly named their newborn boys "Alparslan" and girls "Asel" in 2023, marking a change in the most popular name for girls compared to the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has announced.

According to TÜİK's children statistics released on April 19, while 8,957 newborn boys were named "Alparslan," parents chose "Asel" for 8,114 newborn girls last year.

Following closely behind "Alparslan" were "Yusuf" and "Göktuğ" for boys, while among girls, "Zeynep" and "Defne" ranked second and third in popularity, respectively.

The data indicated that children constituted 26 percent of Türkiye's population, totaling 22.2 million minors.

The official data also indicated that Türkiye's child population rate was higher than that of European Union member countries in 2023.

Population projections foresee the child population rate to decline to 25.6 percent by 2030, 23.3 percent by 2040 and 19.0 percent by 2080.

Analyzing the child population ratios within provincial populations, the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa had the highest child population rate at 44.4 percent in 2023, while Tunceli in the country's east had the lowest at 16.5 percent.

In the analysis made in terms of age groups, the report revealed that the most populated age group among children is 5-9.

The remaining life expectancy at age 7 was 71.4 years on average, with 68.7 years for boys and 74.1 years for girls in Türkiye. For children reaching the legal working age of 15, this expectancy was 63.5 years.

The statistics also noted that the labor force participation rate for children aged 15-17 was 22.1 percent.

Official child marriages decreased, with the percentage of official marriages among girls aged 16-17...