There are 81 provinces in Turkey (). Among the 81 provinces, 30 provinces are designated metropolitan municipalitiesStatistical Institute page (). Metropolitan municipalities are subdivided into districts (), where each district includes a corresponding district municipality, which is a second tier municipality.Law act no 5216

History The first metropolitan municipalities were established in 1984.Belleten of legislation These were the three most populous cities in Turkey, namely, Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. In each metropolitan municipality a number of second level municipalities (ilçe municipality) were established. In 1986, four new metropolitan municipalities were established: Adana,Art no 3306 Bursa, Gaziantep and Konya. Two years later the total number was increased to eight with the addition of Kayseri. In 1993, seven new metropolitan municipalities were established: Antalya, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Mersin, Kocaeli and Samsun. Following the earthquake of 1999, Sakarya was also declared a metropolitan municipality.

Before 2004, only the urban centers with populations of more than 750,000 were declared metropolitan centers. However, in 2004, the concept of metropolitan municipality was redefined in Istanbul and Kocaeli, where thenceforth metropolitan municipality borders would overlap with provincial borders. In 2012, this was extended to other metropolitan municipalities. Thus, all provinces with a population in excess of 750,000 were declared metropolitan municipalities and accordingly the number of metropolitan municipalities has sharply increased. The following 13 cities became metropolitan municipalities:

Aydın Balıkesir Denizli Hatay Malatya Manisa Kahramanmaraş Mardin Muğla Tekirdağ Trabzon Şanlıurfa Van

With the addition of Ordu in 2013, the total number of the metropolitan municipalities increased to 30.CNN Turk news

List of metropolitan areas

(Dark blue: Those provinces before 2012, light blue those after 2012)

Metropolitan municipalities Date of establishment Area (km2)GDP (billion US$)Population (2021)Number of districts Adana 05.06.1986 13,844 15.775 2,263,373 15 Ankara 23.03.1984 25,632 74.285 5,747,325 25 Antalya 09.09.1993 20,177 23.213 2,619,832 19 Aydın 06.12.2012 8,116 7.260 1,134,031 17 Balıkesir 06.12.2012 14,583 10.027 1,250,610 20 Bursa 18.06.1986 10,813 33.641 3,147,818 17 Denizli 06.12.2012 12,134 9.062 1,051,056 19 Diyarbakır 09.09.1993 15,101 6.959 1,791,373 17 Erzurum 09.09.1993 25,006 3.918 756,893 20 Eskişehir 09.09.1993 13,960 9.078 898,369 14 Gaziantep 20.06.1986 6,830 16.545 2,130,432 9 Hatay 06.12.2012 5,524 11.298 1,670,712 15 MersinFormerly named İçel. 09.09.1993 15,010 15.562 1,891,145 13 İstanbul 23.03.1984 5,343 245.207 15,840,000 39 İzmir 23.03.1984 11,891 51.460 4,425,789 30 Kayseri 07.12.1988 16,970 11.956 1,434,357 16 KocaeliFormerly the center city of Kocaeli Province was İzmit, which is now a district 09.09.1993 3,397 34.442 2,033,441 12 Konya 20.06.1986 40,838 16.616 2,277,017 31 Malatya 06.12.2012 12,259 4.324 808,692 13 Manisa 06.12.2012 13,339 13.633 1,456,626 17Kahramanmaraş06.12.2012 14,520 7.015 1,171,298 11 Mardin 06.12.2012 8,780 4.737 862,757 10 Muğla 06.12.2012 12,654 9.444 1,021,141 13 Ordu 14.03.2013 5,914 3.685 760,872 19 SakaryaFormerly the center city of Sakarya Province was Adapazarı, which is now a district 06.03.2000 4,824 9.102 1,060,876 16 Samsun 09.09.1993 9,725 8.332 1,371,274 17 Tekirdağ 06.12.2012 6,190 16.225 1,113,400 11 Trabzon 06.12.2012 4,628 4.897 816,686 18 Şanlıurfa 06.12.2012 19,242 6.413 2,143,020 13 Van 06.12.2012 20,921 3.544 1,141,015 13 783,562 807.143 66,092,128 519

Since the total population of Turkey is 83,154,997, the population in the 30 provinces make up 77% of the population of the country.

See also 2013 Turkish local government reorganisation

Provinces of Turkey by population

Notes

References

External links The critical Analysis of Transformation of Turkish metropolitan Municipality System