The United Nation’s International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has published a report on the state of the world’s children. According to the report, around 9.7 million children in the world die before they reach the age of five. While 270 out of a thousand children die in Sierra Leone, in Turkey this number stands at 26.
In Turkey there is still a marked difference in the education of girls and boys, shown in the statistics for literacy, primary school and high school registration. 18 percent of children are married underage.
In terms of deaths of under five-year olds, Turkey ranks 96th. In 1990, 82 out of 1,000 children died before that age in Turkey, but in 2006 this number fell to 26.
As far as deaths of under one-year olds are concerned, the rate was 67 in a thousand, while it decreased to 24 in a thousand by 2006.
Between 1999 and 2006, only 16 percent of the children born with lower than average birth weight were breastfed, and of these only 21 percent only for six months.
Turkey’s average life expectancy has steadily increased over the last decades: In 1970s it was 56, in 1990 it was 65, and in 2006 it had risen to 72 years. (GG/AG)