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GENERAL DATA

General facts about Turkey: figures and other relevant details about the country

As you will discover in so many details, Turkey is a country that blends aspects of the Middle East and the West. aspects of the Middle East and the West.
Y así se puede observar en su cultura, su sistema político, su población…
Todo ello convierte a Turquía en a fascinating and complex country at the same time.
On this page we show you some general facts about Turkey that will help you to get an overall picture of the country, and then go deeper into them during your trip.

Table of Contents

General data on Turkey as a country

Below we present general data on Turkey, with basic information on its main facts and symbols.
Both this data and much of the data compiled below are taken from the Country Fact Sheet prepared by the Diplomatic Information Office of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, as of June 2023.
Where this is not the case, the source and date of the data in question are indicated:

  • Official name of the State: Republic of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti)
  • Capital: Ankara
  • Foundation of the current State: 1923
  • Form of State: Presidential Republic
  • Head of State: the same figure as the President of the Republic.
    In 2023, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be the head of state.
  • President: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
  • Vice President: this is the second highest constitutional office.
    In 2023, Cevdet Yılmaz
  • Incorporated: 1982
  • Legislative Body: Grand National Assembly
Bandera de Turquía

The flag of Turkey and its possible explanation

The flag of Turkey shows a moon (waning, as seen from the northern hemisphere) and a five-pointed star on a red background.
No hay explicación oficial sobre su significado.
Según la enciclopedia Britannica, la antigua ciudad de Bizancio (posterior Estambul), ya empleaba dichos símbolos: la luna, como referencia a la diosa pagana Diana, a la que estaba consagrada la ciudad; y la estrella, como referencia a la Virgen desde que el emperador Constantino I declarara el cristianismo religión oficial del imperio y renombrara la ciudad como Constantinopla.

The peoples of Central Asia already used the crescent-phase moon as a symbol and also applied it to the Anatolian territory after their conquest.
The later Muslim peoples in turn maintained these symbols, which, in fact, ended up which, in fact, ended up imposing themselves as references to Islam in general.

About the color, it should be said that the Ottoman Empire, until the end of the 19th century, used green and/or red for its flag, but since 1793 red was definitively adopted to identify the ships of its naval navy.
In 1844, the star changed from eight to five points and all this symbolism was confirmed some time later with the Atatürk revolution, which followed the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.

General data on Turkey at the geographical level

  • Surface area: 783,562 km².
  • Coastline: 7,200 km according to some sources (The World Factbook) and 8,140 km according to others (World Resources Institute).
  • Highest point of its territory: Mount Ararat (5,165 meters above sea level).
  • Territories with which it borders:
    • Bulgaria and the Black Sea to the north
    • Georgia and Armenia to the northeast
    • Iran to the east
    • Iraq, Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the South
    • Greece and the Aegean Sea to the west
  • Administrative divisions: 81 provinces
Vida cotidiana de Turquía

General data on Turkey at the social level

  • Number of inhabitants: 85,279,553
  • Major cities, in terms of population:
    • Istanbul: pop. 15,840,900
    • Ankara: pop. 5,747,325
    • Izmir (Izmir): pop. 4,425,789
    • Bursa: 3,147,818 inhabitants
    • Antalya: 2,619,832
  • Population density: 111 inhabitants/km².
  • Official religion: Islam, professed by approximately 98% of the population.
  • Other religious minorities:
    • Christians (Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Syriac Catholics): 29,000 people
    • Jews: 39,000 people, many of them descendants of the Spanish Sephardim expelled in 1492.
  • Official language: Turkish
  • Other languages spoken in Turkey (but not recognized as official languages): Greek, Armenian, Arabic, Kurdish, Laz
  • Human Development Index (HDI): 0.820, ranked 54th out of 189, in the very high HDI category (2019).
  • Life expectancy at birth: 78 years (2022)
  • Birth rate: 15.4‰ (2021)
  • Mortality rate: 5.5‰ (2021).
  • Population growth rate: 0.7% (2022)
  • Female fertility rate: 2.3 (2021), according to World Bank data.
  • Literacy rate: 96.74%, according to UNESCO.

General economic data for Turkey

  • Currency: Turkish lira
  • GDP: $803 billion (2021).
    Ranked 19th, according to data from the Spanish economic newspaper Expansión.
  • GDP per capita: $9,539 (2021).
    Ranked 76th, according to data from the Spanish economic newspaper Expansión.
  • Unemployment rate: 11.2% (2021)
  • Public debt: 53% of GDP
  • GDP distribution by sector (2021):
    • Agriculture-primary sector: 6.3%.
    • Industry – secondary sector: 34.7%.
    • Services: 59% Services: 59% Services: 59% Services: 59% Services: 59% Services: 59% Services: 59

General data on Turkey in terms of tourism

  • Number of annual arrivals: 51.86 million (2019) (among the 10 most visited in the world), according to data from ICEX (Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade).
  • Main tourist issuing countries (2019): Russia, Germany, United Kingdom and Bulgaria, according to ICEX data.

Other country data

  • Telephone prefix: +90
  • Internet domain: .tr
  • Time zone: UTC+03:00

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