The population of Istanbul generally increased between 2007 and 2024, with some fluctuations from 2019 to 2023. During this period, the population of Istanbul went up by over ***** million people, rising from ***** million in 2007 to **** million in 2024. Istanbul is by far the most crowded city Turkey has a dynamic population that increases every year. Even though the population growth rate has decreased in recent years, it has always shown positive values. With a population reaching ** million, the most crowded Turkish city, Istanbul, has more inhabitants than many European countries, such as Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, and Belgium. Additionally, Ankara was the second most settled city in the country. The capital city of Turkey had a population of almost ********* of Istanbul’s, totaling **** million. Turkish women live longer than men In Turkey, the population has been tracked digitally by the Address Based Population Registration System (ABPRS) every year. The total population hit over ** million as of 2023, of whom over **** million were women. Considering the gender distribution, ***** percent of the country’s residents consisted of men. Interestingly, the share of women in Turkish society was significantly higher than that of men among the older age groups.

In 2024, the number of international tourists visiting Istanbul peaked at **** million. The number of foreign tourists arriving in Istanbul reached the second-highest value in 2019, at almost ** million. Due to travel restrictions during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Istanbul fell dramatically in 2020, decreasing by ******* compared to the previous year. Air travel in İstanbul After four years of construction, Istanbul Airport officially opened on October 29th, 2018, having replaced the Atatürk Airport from 2019 onwards. The airport also serves as the hub for Turkish Airlines. In 2023, Istanbul Airport saw approximately ** million passengers pass through, which made it the second-busiest airport in Europe that year. The first place was taken by Heathrow Airport, located in London. In the same year, the second-busiest airport in the city, Sabiha Gökçen Airport, counted over ** million air travelers, of which almost half were domestic passengers. Most visited museums Considered as the economic, cultural, and historic capital, İstanbul offers numerous cultural activities for visitors. Hence, the largest city recorded the highest number of museums among all provinces in Turkey, with ** public and private museums in 2022. That year, the Galata Tower became the most visited museum in İstanbul, welcoming over *** million visitors. Built as a watch tower in the Byzantine period for the first time in the 13th century, the Galata Tower has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage Temporary List since 2013.

The estimated number of cats owned by households in Turkey constantly increased in the observed years from 2012 to 2023. The cat population in Turkey peaked at over *** million in 2023.

London was by far the largest urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom in 2025, with an estimated population of *** million people, more than three times as large as Manchester, the UK’s second-biggest urban agglomeration. The agglomerations of Birmingham and Leeds / Bradford had the third and fourth-largest populations, respectively, while the biggest city in Scotland, Glasgow, was the fifth largest. Largest cities in Europe Two cities in Europe had larger urban areas than London, with Istanbul having a population of around **** million and the Russian capital Moscow having a population of over **** million. The city of Paris, located just over 200 miles away from London, was the second-largest city in Europe, with a population of more than **** million people. Paris was followed by London in terms of population size, and then by the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona, at *** million and *** million people, respectively. The Italian capital, Rome, was the next largest city at *** million, followed by Berlin at *** million. London’s population growth Throughout the 1980s, the population of London fluctuated from a high of **** million people in 1981 to a low of **** million inhabitants in 1988. During the 1990s, the population of London increased once again, growing from ****million at the start of the decade to **** million by 1999. London's population has continued to grow since the turn of the century, and despite declining between 2019 and 2021, it reached *** million people in 2023 and is forecast to reach almost *** million by 2047.