President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on Turkish families to have more children, raising his long-standing target from three to “at least four or five,” as he again warned that Turkey’s declining birthrate poses a serious threat to the nation’s future.
Speaking to reporters on his flight back from Azerbaijan over the weekend, Erdoğan said the country’s fertility rate, which has dropped to 1.7 children per woman, amounted to “suicide” for a country with ambitions for growth.
“At the moment our population growth rate is unfortunately 1.7. This is suicide. We must absolutely solve this,” he said, reiterating his message that families should have multiple children to strengthen the nation.
“I’ve always said at least three children. Why not four or five? We must accelerate this. With a rising population growth rate, our country will more strongly advance into the future.”
The president, who often talks about the central role of the family in Turkish society, said Turkey has a strong family structure but must prevent demographic decline.
Erdoğan, who, during wedding ceremonies frequently urges newlyweds to have at least three children, has for years promoted population growth as a patriotic duty. However, economic hardship, inflation and a housing crisis have made it increasingly difficult for young couples to marry and start families.
Data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) show rising economic strain has coincided with a growing number of single-child households, a drop in marriages and an increase in divorces.
In a relevant development in May, Erdoğan declared the period between 2026 and 2035 the “decade of the family and population” during the International Family Forum in İstanbul, after announcing 2025 as the “Year of the Family.”
Official figures show Turkey’s birthrate has fallen from 2.38 children per woman in 2001 to 1.48 in 2024 — lower than in France, Britain or the United States, in what Erdoğan, a 71-year-old Islamist and father of four, has denounced as “a disaster.”
During his 22 years in office — first as prime minister, then president — fertility rates have dropped sharply in this country of 85 million.
While Erdoğan promotes population growth as essential for Turkey’s strength and moral renewal, critics argue that his government’s failure to address the economic factors behind declining birthrates, from high living costs to childcare and employment barriers for women, has made his appeals increasingly unrealistic.
Turkey has been grappling with deepening economic instability in recent years, driven by double-digit inflation since 2019, a sharp rise in the cost of living and a weakening currency. Inflation stood at around 33 percent in October, while the Turkish lira has lost more than 75 percent of its value against the US dollar since 2021.