MHP Report Outlines an 11-Point Population Vision for Turkey, Warning of Historically Low Levels

Turkey’s declining birth rate has become a national survival issue in an 11-point population report prepared by the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.

MHP Deputy Chairman Özgür Bayraktar said on social media that the party’s Research and Strategy Development Unit had submitted the report to MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli. He said the document offered a broad view of Turkey’s demographic future and aimed to help the country build a strong and sustainable population structure.

The report argues that the strength and permanence of states depend not only on underground resources or military technology, but also on the qualified and dynamic workforce capable of managing them. It describes falling population growth and population ageing, trends that have emerged globally and are now sending dangerous signals in Turkey, as a direct national survival problem.

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The total fertility rate has remained below the population replacement level of 2.10 for nine consecutive years.

The document recalls that Turkey used different family-planning and population policies over the past century. It says the country adopted a demand-led model after 1980, followed by a downward trend in fertility. The total fertility rate fell from 2.38 children in 2001 to 1.44 in 2025, and has remained below the replacement level of 2.10 for nine consecutive years.

The report says Turkey’s population nevertheless rose from 70.6 million in 2007 to 86.1 million in 2025, while annual population growth slowed. In 2023, the rate fell to 1.1 per thousand, described as one of the lowest levels in the country’s history. Proposed measures include placing maternity insurance within long-term insurance schemes, reducing retirement contribution and age requirements according to the number of children, cutting income tax for working mothers and fathers, and abolishing it entirely for families with three or more children. The report also recommends 12 months of paid maternity leave per child for public-sector mothers and two months for fathers.

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Historically, one of the lowest levels