Demographics Of Turkey

Demographic features of the population of Turkey include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

the population of Turkey was 85.7 million with an annual growth rate of 0.34%. However, this official population number excludes the registered Syrian refugees under temporary protection status which have a population of about 2.9 million as of 2025.

Turks are the largest ethnic group, comprising 70–75% of the population while Kurds are the second largest with 19%. The others, including Armenians, Arabs, Assyrians, Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Chechens, Georgians, Pomaks, Romani, Laz people make 6–11% of the population according to 2016 estimate of CIA.

The population has been aging in recent years, with just 20.9% falling in the 0–14 age bracket (down from 26.4% in 2007). The population over the age of 65 is 10.6% (up from 7.1% in 2007). the median age of the Turkish population is 34.4 years (up from 28.3 in 2007). According to OECD/World Bank population statistics, from 1990 to 2008 the population growth in Turkey was 16 million or 29%.CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion
Population 1971–2008
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pages 83–85) IEA (OECD/ World Bank) original population ref e.g. in IEA Key World Energy Statistics 2010, p. 57.

Population

Historical population

Urbanization

According to the CIA World Factbook

* Urban population: 77.5% of total population (2023)
* Rate of urbanization: 1.11% annual rate of change (2020–25 est.)

According to TURKSTAT

* Population of densely populated urban areas: 67.2%
* Population of intermediate density urban areas: 15.5%
* Population of rural areas: 17.2% (2024)

Structure of the population

Structure of the population (20.10.1935):

Structure of the population (20.10.1940):

Structure of the population (22.10.1945):

Structure of the population (22.10.1950):

Structure of the population (23.10.1955):

Structure of the population (23.10.1960):

Structure of the population (24.10.1965):

Structure of the population (25.10.1970):

Structure of the population (26.10.1975):

Structure of the population (12.10.1980):

Structure of the population (20.10.1985):

Structure of the population (21.10.1990):

Structure of the population (22.10.2000):

Structure of the population (31.12.2007):

Structure of the population (31.12.2008):

Structure of the population (31.12.2009):

Structure of the population (31.12.2010):

Structure of the population (31.12.2011):

Structure of the population (31.12.2012):

Structure of the population (31.12.2013):

Structure of the population (31.12.2014):

Structure of the population (31.12.2015) (Data based on Address Based Population Registration System.):

Structure of the population (31.12.2016):

Structure of the population (31.12.2017):

Structure of the population (31.12.2018):

Structure of the population (31.12.2019):

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (31.12.2020):

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (31.12.2021):

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (31.12.2022):

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (31.12.2023):

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (31.12.2024):

Vital statistics

Registered births and deaths

Birth statistics of Turkey from 2001 onward are from the Central Population Administrative System (MERNIS) database which is available online. Birth statistics are updated continually because MERNIS has dynamic structure.

In 2022 Turkey had a crude birth rate of 12.2 per 1000, in 2023 11.2, down from 20.3 in 2001. The total fertility rate (TFR) in 2022 was 1.63 children per woman, in 2023 1.51 The crude birth rate in 2023 ranged from 8.9 per 1,000 in West Marmara (TFR 1.35) (8.9;1.81 in 2023), similar to neighbouring Bulgaria, to 19.3 per 1,000 in Southeast Anatolia (TFR 2.45) (20.1;2.75 in 2023), similar to neighbouring Syria. Similarly, in 2023, the TFR ranged from 1.13 in Bartın, to 3.27 in Şanlıurfa. Death statistics from MERNIS are available as of 2009. Mortality data prior to 2009 are incomplete.

Demographic and Health Surveys

Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and CBR (Crude Birth Rate):

Total fertility rate by region in Turkey by Turkish General Census (GNS) and Turkish population and health research (TNSA).

Fertility rate in Turkey as per GNS (2000) for Rural, Urban and Metropolitan areas.

UN estimates

The 2018 figures from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs:

Life expectancy

Regional data

Birth and death rates

Regional births and deaths

Regional natural increase

Regional total fertility rate (TFR)

Figures from Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat):

Ethnicity

Modern Turkey was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as secular (''Laiklik'', Turkish adaptation of French ''Laïcité''), i.e. without a state religion, or separate ethnic divisions/ identities. The concept of "minorities" has only been accepted by the Republic of Turkey as defined by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and thence strictly limited to Greeks, Jews and Armenians, only based on religious affiliation, excluding from the scope of the concept the ethnic identities of these minorities as of others such as the Kurds who make up 15% of the country; others include Assyrians of various Christian denominations, Alevis and all the others. Provisions of the Lausanne Treaty were extended to Bulgarians in Turkey by the Turkey-Bulgaria Friendship Treaty () of 18 October 1925. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Turkey), as of 2008, there were 89,000 Turkish citizens belonging to one of the three recognized minorities, two thirds of Armenian descent. On 18 June 2013, the Ankara 13th Circuit Administrative Court unanimously ruled that the Assyrians were included as beneficiaries of the Lausanne Treaty, so that Assyrians were allowed to open the first school teaching in their mother tongue.

The word Turk or Turkish also has a wider meaning in a historical context because, at times, especially in the past, it has been used to refer to all Muslim inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire irrespective of their ethnicity.

According to the 2016 edition of the CIA World Factbook, 70–75% of Turkey's population consists of ethnic Turks, with Kurds accounting for 19% and other minorities between 6 and 11%.
According to Milliyet, a 2008 report prepared for the National Security Council of Turkey by academics of three Turkish universities in eastern Anatolia suggested that there are approximately 55 million ethnic Turks, 9.6 million Kurds, 3 million Zazas, 2.5 million Circassians, 2 million Bosniaks, 500,000–1.3 million Albanians, 1,000,000 Georgians, 870,000 Arabs, 600,000 Pomaks, 80,000 Laz, 60,000 Armenians, 30,000 British, 25,000 Assyrians, 20,000 Jews, 15,000 Greeks, and 500 Yazidis living in Turkey.

According to a survey published in 2022 by Konda Research, Turks make up 77% of the population, while 19% self-identify as Kurd. Arabs (Syrian refugees excluded) make up 2%, and other ethnic groups are 2% of the population.

Since the immigration to the big cities in the west of Turkey, interethnic marriage has become more common. A recent study estimates that there are 2,708,000 marriages between Turks and Kurds.

According to a survey done in March 2020 by Area Araştırma, 20.4% of the total population of Turkey claim to be Kurdish (either Kurmanji speaking or Zazaki speaking).

Ethnolinguistic estimates in 2014 by Ethnologue and Jacques Leclerc:

Languages

No exact data are available concerning the different ethnic groups in Turkey. The last census data according to language date from 1965 and major changes may have occurred since then. However, it is clear that the Turkish are in the majority, while the largest minority groups are Kurds and Arabs. Smaller minorities are the Armenians, Greeks and others.

A possible list of ethnic groups living in Turkey could be as follows:

# Turkic-speaking peoples: Turks, Azerbaijanis, Tatars, Karachays, Uzbeks, Crimean Tatars, Kyrgyzs and Uyghurs
# Indo-European-speaking peoples: Kurds, Zazas, Bosniaks, Albanians, Pomaks, Ossetians, Armenians, Megleno-Romanians, Hamshenis, Goranis and Greeks
# Semitic-speaking peoples: Arabs, Jews and Assyrians
# Caucasian-speaking peoples: Circassians, Georgians, Lazs and Chechens

Religion

Turkey has officially been a secular country since its 1924 constitution was amended in 1928. This was later strengthened and entrenched with the wider appliance of laicism by founder Atatürk during the mid-1930s, as part of the Republican reforms.

There are no official statistics of people's religious beliefs nor is it asked in the census. According to the United States Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report 2008, the Turkish government considers 99 percent of the population is Muslim, the majority of which is Hanafi Sunni.International Religious Freedom Report 2008
U.S. Department of State. Retrieved on 2009-09-15. A similar figure can be found in the current US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) the World Factbook (99.8%). The remaining 0.2% is other - mostly Christians and Jews. However, these are based on the existing religion information written on every citizen's national id card, that is automatically passed on from the parents to every newborn, and do not necessarily represent individual choice. Religious records can be changed or even blanked on the request of citizen, by filing an e-government application since May 2020, using a valid electronic signature to sign the electronic application. Any change in religion records additionally results in a new ID card being issued. Any change in religion record also leaves a permanent trail in the census record, however, record of change of religion is not accessible except for the citizen in question, next-of-kins of the citizen in question, the citizenship administration and courts.

In 2023, according to Ipsos, 83% are Muslim, 12% have no religion, 2% prefer not to say, 2% are Christian and 2% are other religions. In a similar survey in 2016, Islam comprised 82% of the total population (65% Sunni and 4% Shi'a), followed by 7% no religion, 6% Spiritual but not religious, 4% Atheism, 3% Agnosticism, 2% Christian, 1% Protestantism, 1% Buddhism, 1% Mahayana and 1% other.

In 2018, a poll conducted by Eurobarometer and KONDA Research and Consultancy and some other research institutes showed that 3% of those interviewed had no religion. In 2013, the same institutions showed that around 0.5% of the population had no religion.

Between 8 million and 20 million Turks are Alevis.

In 2006, in a poll conducted by Sabancı University, 98.3% of Turks revealed they were Muslim.
In 2005, a Eurobarometer poll on Europeans views on ethics in science and technology reported 95% of Turkish citizens answered that "they believe there is a God", while about 2% responded "I believe there is so me sort of spirit or life force", about 1% that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force" and about 1% "DK" (that they don't know). Similar figures were found in some other European countries.

There is concern over the future of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, which suffers from a lack of trained clergy due to the closure of the Halki seminary. The state does not recognise the Ecumenical status of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The percentage of non-Muslims in Turkey fell from 19.1% in 1914 to 2.5% percent in 1927. The drop was the result of the late Ottoman genocides, the population exchange between Greece and Turkey and the emigration of Christians. The 1942 Wealth Tax on non-Muslims, the emigration of many of Turkish Jews to Israel after 1948, and the 1955 Istanbul pogrom further contributed to the decline of Turkey's non-Muslim population.

Religiosity

In 2018, according to a KONDA survey, the religiosity was the following:
*51% defined themselves as ''"a religious person who strives to fulfill religious obligations''" (Religious)
*34% defined themselves as ''"a believer who does not fulfill religious obligations"'' (Not religious).
*10% defined themselves as ''"a fully devout person fulfilling all religious obligations"'' (Fully devout).
*2% defined themselves as "''someone who does not believe in religious obligations"'' (Non-believer).
*3% defined themselves as "''someone with no religious conviction"'' (Atheist).
Among those aged between 15 and 29 years old:

* 43% defined themselves as ''"a religious person who strives to fulfill religious obligations''" (Religious)
*45% defined themselves as ''"a believer who does not fulfill religious obligations"'' (Not religious).
*5% defined themselves as ''"a fully devout person fulfilling all religious obligations"'' (Fully devout).
*4% defined themselves as "''someone who does not believe in religious obligations"'' (Non-believer).
*4% defined themselves as "''someone with no religious conviction"'' (Atheist).

According to the 2007 KONDA survey:
* 52.8% defined themselves as ''"a religious person who strives to fulfill religious obligations''" (Religious)
* 34.3 % defined themselves as ''"a believer who does not fulfill religious obligations"'' (Not religious).
* 9.7% defined themselves as ''"a fully devout person fulfilling all religious obligations"'' (Fully devout).
* 2.3% defined themselves as "''someone who does not believe in religious obligations"'' (Non-believer).
* 0.9% defined themselves as "''someone with no religious conviction"'' (Atheist).
In a 2006 Pew Research Center survey, 69% of Turkey's Muslims said that "religion is very important in their lives". Based on the Gallup Poll 2006–08, Turkey was defined as ''More religious'', in which over 63 percent of people believe religion is important.

Around 2007, according to the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, 62% of women wore the headscarf or hijab in Turkey.

Headscarf

The survey reported that 44.5% of women who lived in metropolitan areas wore the headscarf, increasing to 62.8% in towns and 74.1% in the countryside. There was also an increase in the percentage of women wearing headscarves going from west to east across the country.

Migration

Immigration

Immigration to Turkey is the process by which people migrate to Turkey to reside in the country. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and following Turkish War of Independence, an exodus by the large portion of Turkish ( Turkic) and Muslim peoples from the Balkans ( Balkan Turks, Albanians, Bosniaks, Pomaks), Caucasus (Abkhazians, Ajarians, Circassians, Chechens, Lezgins), Crimea ( Crimean Tatar diaspora), and Crete ( Cretan Turks) took refuge in present-day Turkey and moulded the country's fundamental features. Trends of immigration towards Turkey continue to this day, although the motives are more varied and are usually in line with the patterns of global immigration movements — Turkey, for example, receives many economic migrants from nearby countries such as Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Iran, and Azerbaijan, but also from Central Asia, Ukraine and Russia. Turkey's migrant crisis during the 2010s saw high numbers of people arriving in Turkey, particularly those fleeing the Syrian civil war.

As of August 2024, the number of refugees of the Syrian civil war in Turkey was estimated to be 3,097,660 people. The number of Syrians had decreased by 321,118 people in 2023. In 2022, nearly 100,000 Russian citizens migrated to Turkey, becoming the first in the list of foreigners who moved to Turkey, meaning an increase of more than 218% from 2021.

In order to obtain Turkish citizenship there is a range of legal grounds, which can include: reunification with their family, marriage to a Turkish citizen, for the purchase of real estate worth $400,000 from a Turkish citizen or company. The minimum investment amount was increased in May 2022, previously it was enough to invest $250,000. Also the basis is to work in Turkey, training, business, medical treatment, refugee status.

Population in Turkey by country of citizenship by the end of each years:

Net Migration

Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK). "Nüfus ve Demografi.

https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Kategori/GetKategori?p=Nufus-ve-Demografi-109)

Internal migration

See also

* Provinces of Turkey by population
* Census in Turkey
* Minorities in Turkey

References

Notes

External links

Build Turkey population graph: from 1960 till now (World Bank data)

Build Turkey population projection graph till 2100 (United Nation data)

Build Turkey life expectancy at birth graph: from 1950 till now (United Nation data)

{{Demographics of Europe