Overview of Turkey Population Policy

Population, which is defined as the number of people living in any region or country, includes the socio-economic characteristics, age and gender structure of the individuals. As the population problem gained momentum with the industrial revolution, population policies became more important after this period. Malthus is the basis of the researches on the population problem. Malthus argues that if population growth accelerates, a pessimistic picture will be encountered. He claims that people will become impoverished and even face famine and hunger, especially due to a proportional difference between the increase in population and the amount of food. Population policies are the multi-faceted studies of states regarding the increase, decrease or quality of the population in order to increase the welfare and quality of life of their citizens. Antinatalist policies (slowing down policies applied to reduce the population growth rate) Pronatalist policies (accelerated policies applied to increase the population growth rate) and remedial policies applied to improve the quantity and quality of the population are the policies implemented today. Decreasing population growth rate is perceived by many countries as a problem in maintaining the economic, political and military power of the country. Because, in the long term, it means that the population will decrease significantly if both the fertility decrease and the immigration flow to the country stop. In this study, primarily population and population policies will be discussed in a conceptual framework. Then, the evaluation of the population in terms of economic policy will be evaluated in terms of Malthus and the following periods. It will also attempt to give general information about the population of the Turkey examined population policies implemented in Turkey.

Keywords

Population policy, Population, Pronatalist policies, Antinatalist policies.