Rush from Anatolia to Istanbul reflected in official figures

ANKARA

HÜRRİYET photo

The number of people from eight Turkish provinces currently residing in Istanbul has exceeded the local population in those provinces, according to a new report by the official Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK). 

The report compiled by the Anadolu Agency over the weekend revealed that Istanbul’s current population is 14.6 million and that there are more people residing in Istanbul from the provinces of Erzincan, Giresun, Kastamonu, Sinop, Sivas, Tunceli, Bayburt and Ardahan than the population of each of those provinces. 
The number of Istanbul residents from the eastern province of Ardahan stands at 245,000, but the province’s population is a mere 99,000. 

The report showed that there are 306,536 people in Istanbul from Erzincan, whose population is just 222,918. 

Some 495,731 people from Giresun, with a population at 426,686, now live in Istanbul. 

Some 554,851 people from Kastamonu now live in Istanbul, in contrast to the 372,633 who actually in the northern province. Sinop’s population is 204,133, but 373,693 people from the Black Sea province live in Istanbul. Sivas, Tunceli and Bayburt followed these provinces with more of their locals living in Istanbul than in their hometowns.

The report also indicated that in seven of the eight provinces, the population had decreased, pointing at a domestic migration trend. 

Only in Kastamonu did the population increase, rising from 368,097 in 2014 to 372,633 in 2015.

Overall the Turkish population rose by over 1 million people in 2015 compared to the previous year, officially reaching 78,741,053, according to the latest TÜİK figures made public late in January.

The province with the highest number of people per square kilometer was Istanbul with 2,821, far ahead of the neighboring industrialized province of Kocaeli, which had 493 people per square kilometer. 

Ankara is the second most populated province in the country with 5.27 million people, with İzmir third with 4.17 million people. The proportion of Turks living in urban areas, which was 91.8 percent in 2014, increased to 92.1 percent in 2015. 

The province with the highest median age was Sinop at 39.3.