Türkiye Population

Turkey's fertility has fallen well below the replacement level, with a marked divide between lower-birth western regions and higher-birth eastern ones. The country also hosts one of the world's largest refugee populations, including millions of Syrians, which has reshaped its recent demographics. Policy now pushes for population growth even as the underlying trend points toward stabilisation and eventual ageing.

Türkiye is the world's 18th most populous country, home to about 87.8 million people in 2026. Set in Western Asia, its demographic path this century turns on the balance of births, deaths and migration. Population density stands at about 114 people for every square kilometre of land.

Türkiye is projected to keep growing until about 2047, when its population peaks at roughly 91.4 million before a gradual decline sets in, leaving it near 65.7 million by 2100. It passed the 50 million mark around 1985.

With fertility near 1.62, just under the 2.1 replacement mark, natural increase is fading. Net outward migration also weighs on the total, with more people leaving than arriving.

Half of Türkiye is currently younger than about 33, but by 2100 the median age is projected to reach around 55, even as life expectancy improves from about 77 years. That ageing slowly changes everything from the size of the workforce to the cost of care and pensions.

These figures follow the UN's medium variant, the most widely cited scenario. The low and high variants, driven mainly by differing fertility assumptions, fan out into a wide range by 2100, so treat each number as a central estimate rather than a precise forecast.