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.

Abstract

The 2003 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS-2003) is a nationally representative sample survey designed to provide information on levels and trends on fertility, infant and child mortality, family planning and maternal and child health. Survey results are presented at the national level, by urban and rural residence, and for each of the five regions in the country. The TDHS2003 sample also allows analyses for some of the survey topics for the 12 geographical regions (NUTS1) which were adopted at the second half of 2002 within the context of Turkey's move to join the European Union.

Funding for the TDHS-2003 was provided initially by the Government of Turkey, as a project in the annual investment program of the State Planning Organization, and further funding was obtained from the European Union through the Turkey Reproductive Health Program implemented by the Ministry of Health.

The survey was fielded between December 2003 and May 2004. Interviews were completed with 10,836 households and with 8,075 ever-married women at reproductive ages (15-49). Ever-married women at ages 15-49 who were present in the household on the night before the interview or who usually live in that household were eligible for the survey.

The 2003 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS-2003) is the latest in a series of national-level population and health surveys that have been conducted by the Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies (HUIPS), in the last four decades. The primary objective of the TDHS-2003 is to provide data on socioeconomic characteristics of households and women, fertility, mortality, marriage patterns, family planning, maternal and child health, nutritional status of women and children, and reproductive health. The survey obtained detailed information on these issues from a sample of ever-married women in the reproductive ages (15-49). The TDHS-2003 was designed to produce information in the field of demography and health that to a large extent can not be obtained from other sources.

Specifically, the objectives of the TDHS-2003 included: - Collecting data at the national level that allows the calculation of demographic rates, particularly fertility and childhood mortality rates; - Obtaining information on direct and indirect factors that determine levels and trends in fertility and childhood mortality; - Measuring the level of contraceptive knowledge and practice by method, region, and urban-rural residence; - Collecting data relative to mother and child health, including immunizations, prevalence and treatment of acute respiratory tract infections among children under five, antenatal care, assistance at delivery, and breastfeeding; - Measuring the nutritional status of children under five and of their mothers; and - Collecting data at the national level on elderly welfare, knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and AIDS, and usage of iodide salt.

The TDHS-2003 information is intended to contribute data to assist policy makers and administrators to evaluate existing programs and to design new strategies for improving demographic, social and health policies in Turkey. Another important purpose of the TDHS2003 is to sustain the flow of information for the interested organizations in Turkey and abroad on the Turkish population structure in the absence of reliable and sufficient vital registration system.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

The results show that there have been important changes in various demographic and health indicators in a more positive direction than expected. The fertility data indicate that Turkey is achieving “replacement” fertility. The survey findings also document improvements in infant and child mortality and progress in mother and child health services.

Geographic coverage

The sample was designed to provide estimates for: - Turkey as a whole; - Urban and rural areas (each as a separate domain); - Each of the conventional major five regions of the country, namely the West, South, Central, North, and East regions - The 12 NUTS 13 regions, for selected indicators which are based on sufficient number of observations

Analysis unit

• Household
• Women age 15-49
• Children under five

Universe

The population covered by the 1998 DHS is defined as the universe of all ever-married women age 15-49 in the household who were identified as eligible in the household schedule were interviewed. In addition, some information was collected for households and women in a sub-sample of one-half of all households.

Kind of data

Sample survey data

Sampling procedure

A weighted, multistage, stratified cluster sampling approach was used in the selection of the TDHS-2003 sample. The sample was designed in this fashion because of the need to provide estimates for a variety of characteristics for various domains. These domains, which are frequently employed in the tabulation of major indicators from the survey, are: - Turkey as a whole; - Urban and rural areas (each as a separate domain); - Each of the conventional major five regions of the country, namely the West, South, Central, North, and East regions - The 12 NUTS 13 regions, for selected indicators which are based on sufficient number of observations

The major objective of the TDHS-2003 sample design was to ensure that the survey would provide estimates with acceptable precision for these domains for most of the important demographic characteristics, such as fertility, infant and child mortality, and contraceptive prevalence, as well as for the health indicators.

SAMPLE FRAME

Different criteria have been used to describe "urban" and "rural" settlements in Turkey. In the demographic surveys of the 1970s, a population size of 2,000 was used to differentiate between urban and rural settlements. In the 1980s, the cut-off point was increased to 10,000 and, in some surveys in the 1990s, to 20,000. A number of surveys used information on the administrative status of settlements in combination with population size for the purpose of differentiation. The urban frame of the TDHS-2003 consisted of a list of provincial centers, district centers, and other settlements with populations larger than 10,000, regardless of administrative status. The rural frame consisted of all district centers, sub-districts and villages not included in the urban frame. The urban-rural definitions of the TDHS-2003 are identical with those in the TDHS-1998.

Initial information on all settlements in Turkey was obtained from the 2000 General Population Census. The results of 2000 General Population Census provided a computerized list of all settlements (provincial and district centers, sub-districts and villages), their populations and the numbers of households.

STRATIFICATION

Currently Turkey is divided administratively into 81 provinces. For purposes of selection in prior surveys in Turkey, these provinces have been grouped into five regions. This regional breakdown has been popularized as a powerful variable for understanding the demographic, social, cultural, and economic differences between different parts of the country. The five regions, West, South, Central, North, and East regions, include varying numbers of provinces.

In addition to the conventional five geographic regions, a new system of regional breakdown was adopted in late 2002. In accordance with the accession process of Turkey to the European Union, the State Planning Office and the State Institute of Statistics constructed three levels of NUTS regions, which have since become official (Law No. 2002/4720). "NUTS" stands for "The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics". NUTS is a statistical region classification that is used by member countries of European Union (EU). The 81 provinces were designated as regions of NUTS 3 level; these were further aggregated into 26 regions to form the NUTS 2 regions. NUTS 1 regions were formed by aggregating NUTS 2 regions into 12 regions. Two of the NUTS 1 regions, Istanbul and the Southeastern Anatolia, were given special attention in the sample design process and a comparatively larger share of the total sample was allocated to these regions to ensure that statistically sound estimates for a larger number of indicators would be obtained than would be the case for the remaining 10 NUTS 1 regions. Policymakers, researchers and other concerned circles had voiced interest in information on demographic and health indicators for Istanbul and the Southeastern Anatolian regions in the past. Furthermore, as an add-on study, the Istanbul metropolitan area was designated by UN-Habitat as one of the mega-cities in their International Slum Survey series. In co-operation with UN-Habitat, HUIPS wished to be able to produce estimates for slum4 and non-slum areas within Istanbul; for this reason, the total sample size for Istanbul was kept at a relatively high magnitude.

One of the priorities of the TDHS-2003 was to produce a sample design that was methodologically and conceptually consistent with the designs of previous demographic surveys carried out by the Hacettepe Institute of Population Studies. In surveys prior to the TDHS-1993, the five-region breakdown of the country was used for stratification. In TDHS-1993, a more detailed stratification taking into account subregions was employed to obtain a better dispersion of the sample. The criteria for subdividing the five major regions into subregions were the infant mortality rates of each province, estimated from the 1990 Population Census using indirect techniques.5 Using the infant mortality estimates as well as geographic proximity, the provinces in each region were grouped into 14 subregions at the time of the TDHS-1993. The sub-regional division

In 2024, Russia had the largest population among European countries at ***** million people. The next largest countries in terms of their population size were Turkey at **** million, Germany at **** million, the United Kingdom at **** million, and France at **** million. Europe is also home to some of the world’s smallest countries, such as the microstates of Liechtenstein and San Marino, with populations of ****** and ****** respectively. Europe’s largest economies Germany was Europe’s largest economy in 2023, with a Gross Domestic Product of around *** trillion Euros, while the UK and France are the second and third largest economies, at *** trillion and *** trillion euros respectively. Prior to the mid-2000s, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, Italy, had an economy that was of a similar sized to France and the UK, before diverging growth patterns saw the UK and France become far larger economies than Italy. Moscow and Istanbul the megacities of Europe Two cities on the eastern borders of Europe were Europe’s largest in 2023. The Turkish city of Istanbul, with a population of 15.8 million, and the Russian capital, Moscow, with a population of 12.7 million. Istanbul is arguably the world’s most famous transcontinental city with territory in both Europe and Asia and has been an important center for commerce and culture for over 2,000 years. Paris was the third largest European city with a population of ** million, with London being the fourth largest at *** million.

In 2025, Moscow was the largest city in Europe with an estimated urban agglomeration of 12.74 million people. The French capital, Paris, was the second largest city in 2025 at 11.35 million, followed by the capitals of the United Kingdom and Spain, with London at 9.84 million and Madrid at 6.81 million people. Istanbul, which would otherwise be the largest city in Europe in 2025, is excluded as it is only partially in Europe, with a sizeable part of its population living in Asia. Europe’s population is almost 750 million Since 1950, the population of Europe has increased by approximately 200 million people, increasing from 550 million to 750 million in these seventy years. Before the turn of the millennium, Europe was the second-most populated continent, before it was overtaken by Africa, which saw its population increase from 228 million in 1950 to 817 million by 2000. Asia has consistently had the largest population of the world’s continents and was estimated to have a population of 4.6 billion. Europe’s largest countries Including its territory in Asia, Russia is by far the largest country in the world, with a territory of around 17 million square kilometers, almost double that of the next largest country, Canada. Within Europe, Russia also has the continent's largest population at 145 million, followed by Germany at 83 million and the United Kingdom at almost 68 million. By contrast, Europe is also home to various micro-states such as San Marino, which has a population of just 30 thousand.

Employment Rate in Turkey increased to 49.20 percent in October from 49 percent in September of 2025. This dataset provides - Turkey Employment Rate- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

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.