Country Fast Facts: Turkey

Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power.

Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government.

Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes.

A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives. After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK increased.

Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO; it holds a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council from 2009-2010. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community. Over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy; it began accession membership talks with the European Union in 2005.

Source: CIA World Fact Book

Population:
76,805,524 (July 2009 est.)

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Age structure:
0-14 years: 27.2% (male 10,701,631/female 10,223,260)
15-64 years: 66.7% (male 25,896,326/female 25,327,403)
65 years and over: 6.1% (male 2,130,360/female 2,526,544) (2009 est.)

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Median age:
total: 27.7 years
male: 27.4 years
female: 28.1 years (2008 est.)

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Population growth rate:
1.312% (2009 est.)

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Birth rate:
16.15 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)

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Death rate:
6.02 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)

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Net migration rate:
0.56 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

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Urbanization:
urban population: 69% of total population (2008)
rate of urbanization: 1.9% annual rate of change (2005-2010)

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Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

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Infant mortality rate:
total: 25.78 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 26.84 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 24.67 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

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Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 71.96 years
male: 70.12 years
female: 73.89 years (2009 est.)

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Total fertility rate:
2.21 children born/woman (2009 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
less than 0.1%; note - no country specific models provided (2001 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
NA (2007 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - deaths:
NA

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Nationality:
noun: Turk(s)
adjective: Turkish

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Ethnic groups:
Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20% (estimated)

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Religions:
Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians and Jews)

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Languages:
Turkish (official), Kurdish, Dimli (or Zaza), Azeri, Kabardian
note: there is also a substantial Gagauz population in the European part of Turkey

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Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 87.4%
male: 95.3%
female: 79.6% (2004 est.)

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School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):
total: 11 years
male: 12 years
female: 11 years (2006)

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Education expenditures:
4% of GDP (2004)

Turkey's dynamic economy is a complex mix of modern industry and commerce along with a traditional agriculture sector that still accounts for more than 35% of employment. It has a strong and rapidly growing private sector, yet the state still plays a major role in basic industry, banking, transport, and communication.

The largest industrial sector is textiles and clothing, which accounts for one-third of industrial employment; it faces stiff competition in international markets with the end of the global quota system. However, other sectors, notably the automotive and electronics industries, are rising in importance within Turkey's export mix. Real GNP growth has exceeded 6% in many years, but this strong expansion has been interrupted by sharp declines in output in 1994, 1999, and 2001.

The economy turned around with the implementation of economic reforms, and 2004 GDP growth reached 9%, followed by roughly 5% annual growth from 2005-07. Due to global contractions, annual growth is estimated to have fallen to 3.5% in 2008. Inflation fell to 7.7% in 2005 - a 30-year low - but climbed back to 8.5% in 2007.

Despite the strong economic gains from 2002-07, which were largely due to renewed investor interest in emerging markets, IMF backing, and tighter fiscal policy, the economy is still burdened by a high current account deficit and high external debt. Further economic and judicial reforms and prospective EU membership are expected to boost foreign direct investment. The stock value of FDI currently stands at about $85 billion.

Privatization sales are currently approaching $21 billion. Oil began to flow through the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline in May 2006, marking a major milestone that will bring up to 1 million barrels per day from the Caspian to market.

In 2007 and 2008, Turkish financial markets weathered significant domestic political turmoil, including turbulence sparked by controversy over the selection of former Foreign Minister Abdullah GUL as Turkey's 11th president and the possible closure of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Economic fundamentals are sound, marked by moderate economic growth and foreign direct investment. Nevertheless, the Turkish economy may be faced with more negative economic indicators in 2009 as a result of the global economic slowdown.

In addition, Turkey's high current account deficit leaves the economy vulnerable to destabilizing shifts in investor confidence.

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GDP (purchasing power parity):
$930.9 billion (2008 est.)

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GDP (official exchange rate):
$798.9 billion (2008 est.)

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GDP - real growth rate:
4.5% (2008 est.)

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GDP - per capita (PPP):
$12,900 (2008 est.)

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GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 8.5%
industry: 28.6%
services: 62.9% (2008 est.)

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Labor force:
23.21 million
note: about 1.2 million Turks work abroad (2008 est.)

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Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 29.5%
industry: 24.7%
services: 45.8% (2005)

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Unemployment rate:
7.9% plus underemployment of 4% (2008 est.)

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Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2%
highest 10%: 34.1% (2003)

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Distribution of family income - Gini index:
43.6 (2003)

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Investment (gross fixed):
21% of GDP (2008 est.)

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Budget:
revenues: $164.6 billion
expenditures: $176.3 billion (2008 est.)

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Public debt:
37.1% of GDP (2008 est.)

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Inflation rate (consumer prices):
10.2% (2008 est.)

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Central bank discount rate:
25% (31 December 2007)

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Stock of money:
$64.43 billion (31 December 2007)

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Stock of quasi money:
$254.3 billion (31 December 2007)

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Stock of domestic credit:
$358.1 billion (31 December 2007)

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Market value of publicly traded shares:
$286.6 billion (31 December 2007)

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Agriculture - products:
tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets, hazelnuts, pulse, citrus; livestock

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Industries:
textiles, food processing, autos, electronics, mining (coal, chromite, copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper

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Industrial production growth rate:
4% (2008 est.)

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Electricity - production:
181.6 billion kWh (2007 est.)

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Electricity - consumption:
141.5 billion kWh (2006 est.)

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Electricity - exports:
2.576 billion kWh (2007 est.)

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Electricity - imports:
863 million kWh (2007 est.)

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Oil - production:
42,800 bbl/day (2007 est.)

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Oil - consumption:
676,600 bbl/day (2007 est.)

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Oil - exports:
114,600 bbl/day (2005)

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Oil - imports:
714,100 bbl/day (2005)

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Oil - proved reserves:
300 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.)

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Natural gas - production:
893 million cu m (2007 est.)

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Natural gas - consumption:
36.6 billion cu m (2007 est.)

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Natural gas - exports:
31 million cu m (2007 est.)

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Natural gas - imports:
35.83 billion cu m (2007 est.)

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Natural gas - proved reserves:
8.495 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)

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Current account balance:
-$51.68 billion (2008 est.)

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Exports:
$141.8 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

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Exports - commodities:
apparel, foodstuffs, textiles, metal manufactures, transport equipment

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Exports - partners:
Germany 11.2%, UK 8.1%, Italy 7%, France 5.6%, Russia 4.4%, Spain 4.3% (2007)

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Imports:
$204.8 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

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Imports - commodities:
machinery, chemicals, semi-finished goods, fuels, transport equipment

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Imports - partners:
Russia 13.8%, Germany 10.3%, China 7.8%, Italy 5.9%, US 4.8%, France 4.6% (2007)

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Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$82.82 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

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Debt - external:
$294.3 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

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Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:
$124.8 billion (2008 est.)

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Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:
$13.97 billion (2008 est.)

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Exchange rates:
Turkish liras (TRY) per US dollar - 1.3179 (2008 est.), 1.319 (2007), 1.4286 (2006), 1.3436 (2005), 1.4255 (2004)
note: on 1 January 2005 the old Turkish lira (TRL) was converted to new Turkish lira (TRY) at a rate of 1,000,000 old to 1 new Turkish lira; on 1 January 2009 the Turkish government dropped the word "new" and the currency is now called simply the Turkish lira