The Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) estimated the country’s population at 85,372,377 for 2023, an increase of over 92,000 from the previous year. The 25 Kurdish provinces in accounted for nearly 20 percent of the total population with 17,160,136.
The most populated province was Istanbul with more than 15,655,000, making up over 18 percent of the country’s total population. Sanliurfa (Riha) was the most populated Kurdish province with 2,213,964, according to the report.
Twin earthquakes shook 11 provinces in southern Turkey on February 6, 2023, killing over 50,000 people and destroying thousands of buildings, according to official figures.
Malatya, Kahramanmaras, and Adiyaman (Semsur in Kurdish) were among the provinces most affected by the tremors, which was reflected in the TUIK report. Malatya’s population dropped from 812,580 in 2022 to 742,725 in 2023, Kahramanmaras’ population went from 1,177,436 to 1,116,618, and Semsur’s population decreased from 635,169 to 604,978.
The Turkish government was heavily criticized by the opposition for the slow response to the earthquake, mainly due to not taking adequate prevention measures following the earthquakes of Elazig (Kharpet in Kurdish) and Izmir in 2020, which killed over 160 people.
