Turkey

Geography

With a total area of 785,350 km², Turkey stretches across two continents and is therefore slightly larger than the area of Texas. Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, covers around 97% of the country's surface area. Only 3% is on the Balkan Peninsula in south-eastern Europe. As the metropolitan area of Istanbul is also located here, the European share of the population is around 12%. A total of 84.98 million people live in the country. The average population density is 108.2 inhabitants per km², although large parts of mountainous Anatolia and the eastern highlands are very sparsely populated. At 77.0%, a considerable proportion of Turks belong to the urban population. Almost one in six inhabitants lives in Istanbul, a metropolis of over 15 million. This makes it the country's largest city, far ahead of the capital Ankara, and also its economic and cultural center.

Turkey borders the Aegean Sea, Greece and Bulgaria to the west, the Black Sea to the northwest and Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east. Iraq, Syria and the Mediterranean lie to the south. The coasts on the Mediterranean and Black Sea reach a length of 7,200 km. This also includes around 500 partially uninhabited islands.

While the Marmara and Aegean regions in the west of the country are largely flat, the landscape is dominated by the Taurus Mountains in the south, the Pontic Mountains in the north and the Armenian Highlands in the east. On average, Turkey lies at an altitude of 1132 meters above sea level. Mount Ararat in eastern Anatolia is the highest mountain in Turkey at 5,137 meters. The southern Mediterranean region and south-eastern Anatolia in particular are among the most earthquake-prone regions in the world.

Climate in Turkey

A large part of Turkey is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, which means that maritime sea air affects the country from both sides. Because of this, summers are very warm with temperatures often above 30°C and very little rainfall. Winters, on the other hand, are noticeably cooler and also more humid. The inland, especially southern and eastern Anatolia, is dominated by higher and therefore cooler mountain regions. With up to +45C° in summer and -40°C in winter, the mountains of Ararat have the greatest temperature fluctuations in Turkey. This area receives the most rain in summer as well.

• Detailed climate data for Turkey and 7 individual regions
• Earthquakes
• Tsunamis

Languages

Mother tongue	Distribution
Turkish	87.6 %
Kurdish	10.4 %
Arabic	1.4 %
other	0.6 %

Religions

Religion	Distribution
Christs	0.2%
Sunni	70.0%
Shia	4.0%
Alevites	25.0%
other	0.8%

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Economy

GDP:	907.12 bn $
Exportations:	343.69 bn $
Importations:	383.50 bn $
Budget deficit:	19,042 M $
› Tourism receipts:	27.90 bn $
› Debt rate:	31.18 %
› Unemployment rate:	9.41 %
› Inflation rate:	72.31 %
› Corruption index:	34 (bad)
› Energy consumption:	264.0 bn kWh

According to the definition from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Turkey is a developing country because of its lower economic performance. Despite this classification, the country is currently also one of the emerging markets, i.e. countries with increasing industrialization.

With a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.855, Turkey counts as one of the high developed economies by UN definition.

With an average annual income of 10,640 USD Turkey is one of the upper middle-income countries.

Turkey is considered one of the most dangerous countries worldwide.

Land use

6% Urban areas:	44,090 km²
50% Agricultural areas:	393,303 km²
29% Forest:	226,731 km²
2% Water areas:	15,720 km²
15% Others:	121,226 km²

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Transport

Roadways:	68,526 km
Railways:	11,497 km
Waterways:	1,200 km
Reg. vehicles:	23,220,435
› Airports: