OCK Key Statistics 

Turkey is a country with a high child population – 1 in 4 individuals is a child, and at least 1 child lives in almost half of the households. 

  • Children make up 25.5% of Turkey’s population – the total child population is 21.8 million (TurkStat, 2024).
  • 42.8% of households have at least one child aged 0-17 (TurkStat, 2024).

Approximately 10% of the age population does not continue their education.

  • Net schooling rates are 82.5% for preschool (age 5) – 95.4% for primary school – 89.1% for secondary school – 82.9% for high school (2024-2025 Formal Education Statistics).

1 out of every 3 children is poor.

  • 31.9% of children are poor and 30.4% live in severe material deprivation (TÜİK, 2024).
  • 8.5% of children live in households with no employees (TÜİK, 2024).

A large number of children work as labourers; most of the registered workers are in the service sector.  

  • 4.4% of (age 5-17) children (720 thousand children) are engaged in economic work (TÜİK, 2019); among working children, 45.5% work in the service sector, 30.8% in agriculture and 23.7% in industry (TurkStat, 2019).
  • Labor force participation rate of children aged 15-17 is 24.9% (Household Labor Force Survey, 2024).
  • 12.4% of girls and 9.1% of boys aged 15-17 are neither in education nor employment (Household Labor Force Survey, 2024).

One out of every 4 women was married as a child. 

  • 24.2% of women and 4.4% of men were married before the age of 18 (Family Structure Survey, 2021).
  • 9,971 children were officially married in 2024; 94% of the children who married were girls (TurkStat Marriage Statistics, 2024).

Child sexual abuse is one of the most serious causes of victimization for children.

  • In 2023, 11.8% of children brought to security units as crime victims (approximately 26 thousand children) were victims of sexual offenses (Statistics on Children Arriving and Brought to Security Units, 2024).
  • In 2023, 67,507 people were prosecuted for sexual abuse of children and 26,265 people were prosecuted for sexual intercourse with a minor (Justice Statistics, 2024).

Physical abuse is a common punishment method used by parents. 

  • Among punishment methods used by mothers, 26.2% report slapping, 14.3% beating and 8.1% locking in a room (Family Structure Survey, 2016).
  • Among punishment methods used by fathers, 37.5% report slapping, 25.6% beating and 9.5% locking in a room (Family Structure Survey, 2016).