Turkey's population hits 83.6 million, growth rate nosedives

Turkey’s population hits 83.6 million as of the end of 2020, while the population growth rate nosedived from 13.9 per thousand in 2019 to just 5.5 per thousand in 2020, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced on Thursday, Feb. 4.

Some 459,000 were added to the country’s population in 2020, according to TÜİK’s Address-Based Population Registration System (ABPRS).

Male population was 41.9 million and female population was 41 million. While 50.1 percent of the total population were males, 49.9 percent of the total population were females, TÜİK said.

However, the population growth rate in the country fell sharply. The population growth rate, which was 13.9 per thousand in 2019, was only 5.5 per thousand in 2020.

The most populous province of the country recorded by TÜİK was again Istanbul, with its 15.4 million residents. However, the population of the metropolitan decreased by 56,815 in a year.

Some 18.5 percent of the Turkish population lives in Istanbul, TÜİK stated.

Ankara with 5.6 million residents, İzmir with 4.4 million residents, Bursa with 3.1 million residents, and Antalya with 2.5 million residents followed Istanbul in the list.

With its 81,910 residents, Bayburt was the least populated province in the country, according to TÜİK. The other least populated provinces are Tunceli (83,443), Ardahan (96,161), Gümüşhane (141,702), and Kilis (142,792).

The proportion of the population residing in province and district centers increased from 92.8 percent in 2019 to 93 percent in 2020, according to TÜİK’s report.

The proportion of the population living in towns and villages decreased from 7.2 to 7 percent.

The population density, which is the number of persons per square kilometer, increased by one person compared to 2019 and reached 109 in 2020.

The province with the highest number of persons per square kilometer was Istanbul, with 2,976 persons. Kocaeli and İzmir followed Istanbul.

The low population zone across the country is Tunceli, with 11 people per square kilometer. Ardahan and Erzincan, with 20 people per square kilometer, follow Tunceli.

The population density of the Central Anatolian province of Konya, which has the largest surface area, was 58 and the population density of the northwestern province of Yalova, which has the smallest surface area, was 452.

The median age in the country increased from 32.4. to 32.7.

The number of foreigners living in the country decreased by 197,770 persons to 1.3 million.

Around 49.7 percent of the foreigners are males, 50.3 percent are females. Syrians with temporary legal protections and tourists with visas under three months were not included.

While comparing the data of 2007 and 2020, it showed that the population of older people has increased across the country.

The rate of the elderly population increased from 7.1 percent in 2007 to 9.5 percent in 2020.

On the contrary, during this period, the rate of the population of children under 14 fell sharply from 26.4 percent to 22.8 percent.

The rate of the population of people between 15 and 65 ages increased from 66.5 percent in 2007 to 67.7 in 2020.