Turkey’s govt acts as birth rates drop

Baby push clashes with economic woes and gender rights fears, writes Anne Chaon

- Anne Chaon

Alarmed by the fact that Turkish women are having fewer children, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has moved to tackle falling birthrates — “a threat greater than war” — through policies designed to bring on the babies.

After declaring 2025 Turkey's “Year of the Family,” Mr Erdogan last month announced 2026 would mark the start of the “Decade of the Family”.

But his pleas for women to have at least three children and offers of financial incentives for newlyweds may not be enough as Turkey grapples with a deepening economic crisis.

Official figures show Turkey’s birthrate has fallen from 2.38 children per woman in 2001 to 1.48 in 2025 in what Mr Erdogan, a 71-year-old pious Muslim and father-of-four, has denounced as “a disaster”.

During his 22 years in office — first as premier, then president — fertility rates have dropped sharply in this country of 85 million people. Mr Erdogan has blamed both women and LGBTQ “perverts”.