45 percent of young Turkish women agreed to arranged marriages in 2016: Report

ANKARA

AFP photo

Some 45 percent of young Turkish females aged between 15 and 24 consented to arranged marriages while 35.3 percent had married husbands of their own choice in 2016, according to a report published by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) on May 16.

The proportion of young females who met their spouses through their families and relative networks was 52 percent, the report titled “Youth in Statistics, 2016” said, adding that some 2.6 percent of young females met their husbands through the internet. 

The report titled “Youth in Statistics, 2016” also revealed information on young males, indicating that some 33.4 percent of young Turkish men married through arranged marriages, whereas the number was 45.3 percent for those who got married with wives of their own choice.

The report has also obtained information as to how much the young population constituted Turkey’s population. People aged between 15 and 24 constituted 16.3 percent of the total population, with young male population constituting 51.2 percent of it, and young female population 48.8 percent of it. 
 
According to the results, the southeastern province of Hakkari had the highest proportion of young population with 25.5 percent in 2016. Hakkari was followed by two other southeastern provinces, Şırnak with 23.9 percent, and Siirt with 23.1 percent. 

Provinces with the lowest proportion of young population were the Aegean province of Muğla with 13.2 percent, the Marmara province of Balıkesir with 13.5 percent, and the Black Sea province of Sinop with 13.7 percent.

Unemployment rate was 23.7 percent among young females and 17.4 percent among young males in 2016. Unemployment rate among young females showed an increase of 1.5 points since the previous year, whereas the increase was 0.9 points for the young male population.
 
According to results from a survey on life satisfaction, in 2016, the proportion of young females at the age group of 18-24 who said they were happy was 70.2 percent, while it was 60 percent for young males.

Health was the primary source of happiness among young people, followed by love and success, according to the results of the survey. 

While the primary source of happiness for young males and females did not change, in the second order, it was success and love for young females, and success then love for young males. 

Love was prioritized as a source of happiness by young women, while success was an overriding source of happiness for young men. 

According to the results of the life satisfaction survey, 63 percent of young females were satisfied from the education they received up until now, while this figure was 64.2 for young males.