Page last modified 18 August 2023

224) Turkey

Community

Area 783,562 square kilometres (land area 769,632 square kilometres)

Population,

8,800,000 (AD 1)

11,600,000 (AD 350)

7,000,000 (AD� 600)

8,000,000 (AD 800)

8,000,000 (1000)

7,000,000 (1200)

8,000,000 (1340)

6,000,000 (1500)

13,648,270 (1927)

16,158,018 (1935)

17,820,950 (1940)

20,947,188 (1950)

27,470,000 (1960)

34,876,000 (1970)

43,976,000 (1980)

53,922,000 (1990)

63,240,000 (2000)

72,327,000 (2010)

78,530,000 (2015)

82,320,000 (2018)

Ethnicity, %

	Bulgarian	Greek	Kurdish	Romanian	Russian	Turkish	Yugoslavian
1935	1.4	2.3		0.4	0.4	94.0	1.0
1973						92.0
1990			12.0			85.0
2009			20.0			80.0

Religion,� %� Islam was the State religion until 1928; the State is now secular.

	Christian	Jewish	Muslim All	Muslim Shia	Muslim Sunni	No religion
1935			98.0
1945	1.4	0.4	98.0
1947		0.4
1955			99.0
1980			98.0
1990	3.0		97.0	30.0	67.0
2016	2.0		84.0	4.0	65.0	7.0

Birth and death rates Below replacement rate = 2.1

	Fertility Rate	Birth Rate	Infant Mortality	Death Rate	% Aged Under 15	% Aged Over 65	% Urban
1927							24.2
1935							23.5
1940							24.4
1950		48.0 (+24.0)	233.0	24.0	38.3	3.3	25.2
1960	6.4	43.0 (+23.0)	171.0	20.0	41.9	3.2	31.5
1970	5.5	39.0 (+24.0)	127.0	15.0	41.5	4.0	38.2
1980	4.4	35.0 (+23.8)	90.0	11.2	39.6	4.7	43.8
1990	3.1	26.0 (+17.8)	55.6	8.2	35.8	4.6	59.2
2000	2.4	21.8 (+15.3)	30.9	6.5	30.6	6.1	64.7
2010	2.2	18.0 (+12.2)	14.9	5.8	26.9	7.2	70.7
2015	2.1	16.5 (+10.7)	10.9	5.8	25.6	7.8	73.4
2016			10.3		25.3	8.0	73.9
2017	2.1	16.3 (+10.5)	9.7	5.8
2018			9.1		24.6	8.5

Life expectancy,

47.0 (1952)

45.4 (1960); 42.5 (M), 48.4 (F)

52.3 (1970); 49.6 (M), 55.1 (F)

58.7 (1980); 55.4 (M), 62.2 (F)

64.3 (1990); 60.7 (M), 68.0 (F)

70.0 (2000); 66.4 (M), 73.8 (F)

74.1 (2010); 70.8 (M), 77.6 (F)

77.8 (2020); 74.8 (M), 80.6 (F)

Population of principal cities, 1000s MA = Metropolitan Area

	Adana	ANKARA	Bursa	Istanbul	Izmir	Konya
100 AD				36
360				300
400				800
450				200*
700				50*
1000				450
1350				1,000
1600				700
1800				570
1850	25			700
1900	32			943	250
1920		28		850	220
1927		75		691
1935		125		741
1945	100	227	86	845	200	59
1950	118	289	104	983	228
1960	232	1,300	154	1,467	361	118
1965	290		211	1,743	412	157
1980	575		445	2,773	758	329
1990		3,022	1,031	6,407	2,665	1,015
2000	1,130	3,541	1,617	9,119	2,750	1,314
2007		3,764	1,431	10,757
2015		5,270	1,854		4,113 MA
2016	1,737			14,804 MA		2,161 MA

*Around three quarters of the population fled as the Huns invaded Constantinople. The population fell further as Byzantium crumbled under eastern attacks.

Wealth; Gross Domestic Product (nominal values)

	GDP, US$ million	Total GDP, % of USA	GDP per capita, US$	GDP per capita % of USA
1948	2,796	1.25	143	9.38
1956	7,700	2.15
1960	14,000	2.58	510	16.96
1965	11,950	1.61	385	10.06
1970	17,000	1.64	490	9.34
1975	42,350	2.59	1,063	13.59
1980	70,120	2.51	1,577	12.52
1985	67,230	1.60	1,336	7.31
1990	150,390	2.59	2,693	11.24
1995	175,530	2.37	2,860	9.51
2000	273,000	2.74	4,316	11.84
2005	501,000	3.83	7,384	16.67
2010	770,000	5.15	10,700	22.12
2015	859,000	4.76	11,000	19.57
2016	857,000	4.62	10,800	18.79

GDP by primary sector

	Agriculture % GDP	Agriculture % employed	Industry % GDP	Industry % employed	Services % GDP	Services % employed
1960		78.0		11.0		11.0
1980	19.0	54.0	24.0	13.0	53.0	35.0
1990	17.0	47.0	26.0	20.0	53.0	33.0
2000	13.4	40.0	29.1	22.0	57.5	38.0
2010	9.2	25.5	26.9	26.2	63.9	48.4
2016	6.9	18.4	32.3	26.6	60.8	54.9

Communications

Language, %, Official; Turkish.� Kurdish and Arabic also spoken.

	Kurdish MT	Turkish MT
1935	9.3	86.8
1955	6.2	90.4
1980		92.0
1990	12.0	86.0
2010	12.0	85.5

Literacy

15.8% (1935); 23.3% (M), 8.2% (F)

35.0% (1945); 49.5% (M), 20.0% (F)

60.2% (1980); 77.2% (M), 43.1% (F)

74.0% (1985); 86.0% (M), 62.0% (F)

82.3% (1995); 91.7% (M), 72.4% (F)

85.0% (2000); 93.5% (M), 76.5% (F)

88.7% (2010); 96.2% (M), 81.2% (F)

95.6% (2015); 98.6% (M), 92.6% (F)

Physical communications � roads

	Roads (km)	Surfaced (km)	Motor vehicles	Cars	Commercial Vehicles
1939	16,500
1946	43,462	9,040
1947		12,500		4,890	10,310
1955			65,500	28,600
1960	56,000	34,000	140,000	37,616	48,094
1961		40,257		52,381	78,662
1967			245,160	121,280
1980	60,761	54,318	1,134,803	710,915	418,041
1988	330,000		1,725,000	1,175,000
1992				2,181,388	595,340
2000	342,625		6,626,885	4,442,000	1,189,000
2007			9,080,000	6,472,200	2,619,700
2012	385,754	352,268	12,827,000
2013			17,940,000
2015			20,099,000	10,652,000	3,276,000

Railways; First railway opened 1856. Railway reached Ankara in 1892.

Length, kilometres

44 (1860)

230 (1870)

3,623 (1920)

5,255 (1930)

7,354 (1940)

7,676 (1950)

7,895 (1960) (0.4% e)

7,929 (1962)

8,050 (1970)

8,141 (1980) (2.5% e)

8,500 (1990) (9.4% e)

8,671 (2000) (20.2% e)

8,697 (2010)

Urban metro systems, kilometres (year opened)

	Adana (2009)	Ankara (1997)	Bursa (2002)	Istanbul (2000)	Izmir (2000)
2010	13.5	23.4	24.0	17.0	11.6
2015	13.5	64.4	38.9	105.8	20.1

Electronic communications, 1000s, Radio broadcasts began 1927. TV broadcasts began 1964 (colour from 1981).

	Telephones (landlines)	Mobile Telephones	Radios	Televisions	PCs	Internet Users
1938			29
1945	28		176
1948	43		223
1950	65		362
1960	175		1,341
1962	194		1,707	1
1970	460		4,000
1980	1,748		4,284	3,348
1986		0.4	7,500	8,000
1988					120
1990	6,860	32	9,000	12,987	300
1995		437	10,000	18,958	920
1997						600
2000	18,395	16,133	13,000	21,000	2,500	3,600
2005		43,610			4,000	18,000
2008	17,500	65,824				26,500
2016	11,078	75,062				46,840
2017						56,000

Tourism: Visitors to Turkey,

460,000 (1967)

1,300,000 (1980)

4,799,000 (1990)

7,083,000 (1995)

9,586,000 (2000)

20,273,000 (2005)

31,364,000 (2010)

39,478,000 (2015)

25,000,000 (2016)*

*Significant drop from 2015 due to terrorism and political instability in Turkey.