National Gender Profile Of Agricultural And Rural Livelihoods Turkey

Abstract

The Republic of Turkey (Turkey) is a geographically diverse country with a land area of 780 043 square kilometres and 8 333 kilometres of coastline. Turkey spans both Europe and Asia, with approximately three percent of the country located in Southeast Europe (Thrace, or the area west of the Bosporus) and the majority in Anatolia (Southwest Asia). Most of the country’s population of just under 80 million people lives in province and district centres (only 7.9 percent of the population lives in towns and villages).1 Turkey is experiencing intensive urbanization, and between 1950 and 2010 the share of the population living in cities increased from 25 percent to 76 percent.2 Such growth in the urban population has put strains on local housing, services and the labour market and has also resulted in the growth of unplanned settlements around urban areas. The rate of urbanization diff ers from region to region: the West is the most densely populated and industrialized part of the country; and provinces in the South, Central and Eastern regions are characterized by smaller-scale industrial production and agriculture, including animal husbandry.