Türkiye’s total fertility rate fell to 1.42 children per woman in 2025, remaining below the population replacement level for a ninth consecutive year, official data showed.
The number of live births stood at 895,374 last year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released on Thursday. Boys accounted for 51.4% of newborns, while girls made up 48.6%.
The fertility rate, which refers to the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her reproductive years, was 2.38 in 2001. It has been declining steadily since 2014 and remained well below the replacement threshold of 2.1 in 2025.
The decline has spread across the country. In 2017, 57 provinces had fertility rates below the replacement level. By 2025, that number had risen to 76. The number of provinces with rates below 1.5 also jumped from four to 59 over the same period.
Şanlıurfa recorded the highest fertility rate last year, at 3.15 children per woman, followed by Şırnak and Mardin. Bartın had the lowest rate, followed by Izmir, Eskişehir, Ankara and Zonguldak.
