All over the world, poor and illiterate girls living in rural areas are at higher risk of becoming underage marriage than well-educated girls living in cities. Early marriages exacerbate inequalities between females and males in society and violate children's and women's rights. This study aimed to demonstrate temporal changes in the prevalence of child marriage and underage childbearing in Turkey by exploring the causes of regional variations in the schooling rate. Our retrospective, descriptive and register-based study obtained input data on childbirth, marriage, population and schooling from official statistics published by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) and the Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education. Based on official statistics, underage childbearing rates decreased from 2002 to 2019 in Turkey. This study outlined significant regional variations in the ratio of childbearing female under 18 to the population that were higher in the northeastern, central eastern, and southeastern Anatolia regions of Turkey than in other regions. During the same period, there were downward trends in the number of legal marriages of female aged 16–17 and the number of underage females who gave birth in contrast with an increasing population of girls living in Turkey. In terms of welfare, education and healthcare, developments in Turkey were considered to have contributed to the downward tendency of childbearing and marriages of underage females. However, an increase in the schooling rate of girls was the critical determinant of the observed tendency. Therefore, officially setting the compulsory education age to 18 can help to prevent underage marriage and childbearing.

中文翻译：

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可以阻止未成年少女生育和结婚吗？土耳其人口数据研究

在世界各地，生活在农村地区的贫困和文盲女孩比生活在城市的受过良好教育的女孩面临更高的未成年结婚风险。早婚加剧了社会中男女之间的不平等，侵犯了儿童和妇女的权利。本研究旨在通过探讨入学率地区差异的原因，展示土耳其童婚和未成年生育流行率的时间变化。我们的回顾性、描述性和基于登记的研究从土耳其统计局 (TURKSTAT) 和土耳其共和国国民教育部发布的官方统计数据中获取了有关生育、婚姻、人口和教育的输入数据。根据官方统计，2002年至2019年土耳其未成年生育率有所下降。这项研究概述了土耳其东北部、中东部和安纳托利亚东南部地区 18 岁以下育龄女性占人口比例的显着区域差异，高于其他地区。同一时期，16-17 岁女性合法结婚数量和生育的未成年女性数量呈下降趋势，而土耳其女孩数量却不断增加。在福利、教育和医疗保健方面，土耳其的发展被认为导致了未成年女性生育和结婚率下降的趋势。然而，女孩入学率的提高是所观察到的趋势的关键决定因素。所以，