Turkey: cities by population
Turkey has a population of 87,926,082 (UN estimate, 2026), with Ankara as its capital. The 50 largest of its 3,188 recorded towns and cities, ranked.
+34%
since 2000 (65,425,961)
+4%
projected by 2050 (91,258,061)
114
people per km²
Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.
Largest cities in Turkey
| # | Place | Region | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Istanbul | Istanbul | 15,701,602 |
| 2 | Ankara | Ankara | 3,517,182 |
| 3 | Bursa | Bursa Province | 3,101,833 |
| 4 | İzmir | İzmir Province | 2,938,292 |
| 5 | Gaziantep | Gaziantep | 2,222,415 |
| 6 | Diyarbakır | Diyarbakır Province | 1,833,684 |
| 7 | Adana | Adana | 1,816,750 |
| 8 | Kayseri | Kayseri | 1,452,458 |
| 9 | Konya | Konya | 1,433,861 |
| 10 | Antalya | Antalya | 1,335,002 |
| 11 | Eskişehir | Eskişehir | 921,630 |
| 12 | Erzurum | Erzurum | 767,848 |
| 13 | Malatya | Malatya | 750,491 |
| 14 | Mersin | Mersin | 537,842 |
| 15 | Nilüfer | Bursa Province | 536,365 |
| 16 | Van | Van | 525,016 |
| 17 | Batman | Batman | 452,157 |
| 18 | Muratpaşa | Antalya | 450,000 |
| 19 | Şanlıurfa | Şanlıurfa | 449,549 |
| 20 | Elazığ | Elazığ | 443,363 |
| 21 | Beylikdüzü | Istanbul | 415,290 |
| 22 | Antakya | Hatay | 399,045 |
| 23 | Samsun | Samsun | 394,050 |
| 24 | Kahramanmaraş | Kahramanmaraş | 384,953 |
| 25 | Uşak | Uşak | 369,433 |
| 26 | Alanya | Antalya | 364,180 |
| 27 | Sultanbeyli | Istanbul | 358,201 |
| 28 | Tarsus | Mersin | 350,732 |
| 29 | Aksaray | Aksaray | 327,575 |
| 30 | Denizli | Denizli | 313,238 |
| 31 | Adıyaman | Adıyaman Province | 290,883 |
| 32 | Adapazarı | Sakarya | 286,787 |
| 33 | Gebze | Kocaeli | 281,436 |
Twenty years earlier: Turkey in the 2005 World Gazetteer — population then 73,556,173.
Common questions
What is the population of Turkey?
Turkey has a population of 87,926,082, the UN World Population Prospects estimate for 2026. The UN's medium-variant projection for 2050 is 91,258,061 — a forecast, not a measurement.
What is the capital of Turkey?
Ankara. The largest place we record there is Istanbul, with 15,701,602 people.