THE APPEARANCE OF ELDERLY POPULATION IN TURKEY AND EU COUNTRIES

According to the definition of the United Nations, the case that the proportion of the elderly population in a country is between 8% and 10% in the total population means that the population of the country is “old” and above %10 means “very old”. The aging countries may experience problems related to the decrease in the share of the active population and social security systems. The present study aims to compare; the proportion of the population aged over 65, elderly dependency ratios and projections and the labor force participation rate of the population aged 65 and older in Turkey and EU countries. It is resulted that; the share of the elderly population in Turkey is lower than in the EU countries, but in the last decade Turkey is aging more quickly than EU countries; Turkey has a lower proportion of elderly dependency ratios compare to in EU countries but elderly dependency ratios have been increasing faster in Turkey than in EU countries in the last decade. According to 50-year projections, the elderly dependency ratio will increase more dramatically in Turkey comparing to EU countries and lastly, Turkey has a higher elderly labor force participation rate comparing to EU countries