Comparison of New York City and Istanbul within the framework of age friendly city criteria

The purpose of the study is to determine, analyze, and evaluate similarities and differences in age-friendly city practices by comparing two cities with metropolitan characteristics (New York City and Istanbul) in terms of age-friendly city criteria. We hope that the analysis will be a guide for future research in this field. The study components consist of aging and old age, social policy, active aging, urbanization, aging cities, the age-friendly cities movement, examples of a few age-friendly cities worldwide and their policies, and the age-friendly city of New York and Istanbul. Research was concluded in the final part of the study. A qualitative research model and the qualitative document analysis research method were employed in the study. The first research question was whether there exists any difference or similarity between Istanbul and New York within the framework of World Health Organization (WHO) age-friendly city criteria. The second question was whether New York is more successful than Istanbul in meeting the WHO age-friendly city criteria. The study hypotheses were H0 'That there is no difference between New York and Istanbul in terms of meeting WHO age-friendly city criteria,' and H1 'That New York meets the WHO age-friendly city criteria more than Istanbul.' Identification and analysis of similarities and differences following comparisons revealed pronounced differences between New York and Istanbul's methods and approaches regarding age-friendly policies, their priorities within the age-friendly city criteria, and the extent to which they were able to meet these criteria. A marked difference was observed in the two cities' meeting of the age-friendly city criteria. This finding does not support hypothesis H0. Another finding is that New York meets the age-friendly criteria more than Istanbul. This finding supports hypothesis H1.