While Turkiye remains highly popular among UK tourists – 2024 was a record-breaking year – the same can’t be said of its expat population.
Living in Turkiye
Government statistics agency TUIK revealed that the UK has fallen to 22nd place in the number of foreign nationals living in Turkiye based on its 2024 Address-Based Population Registration System.
At the end of 2024, there were 14,386 UK residents living in Turkiye compared to 15,734 in 2023 – a fall of 1,348 residents.
While there are no particular reasons for the reduction, social media responses suggest the cost of living, such as high inflation, rocketing rents, diminishing bank returns from savings, are among the main reasons for leaving.
Other reasons often cited include the residence permit process, related health needs of an aging population, a desire to be closer to family in the UK, or, simply, a desire to change country.
Overall, there were 1,480,547 people from other nations that call Turkiye home in 2024 – down nearly 90,000 on 2023’s 1,570,543 population.
The top ten largest foreign populations in Turkiye were from – Iraq (177,988), Afghanistan (139,251), Germany (115,958), Turkmenistan (113,762), Iran (95,924), Russia (85,752), Azerbaijan (80,133), Syria (72,367), Uzbekistan (59,132), and Kazakhstan (44,445).
Between UK in 22nd place up to 11th placed Ukraine, there were more citizens from Austria, Egypt, Bulgaria, Morocco, Indonesia, Yemen and Greece.
There are now 9,621 US residents living in Turkiye, 7,587 from the Netherlands, 4,237 French citizens and only 777 people from Ireland in 86th place.
There are people from over 130 nations now living in Turkiye. These include 121 from Slovenia, 136 from Chile, 143 from Madagascar, 164 from St Kitts and Nevis, 169 from Peru, 172 from Ecuador and 182 from New Zealand.
Record tourist numbers
On the flip side, Turkiye hosted 52.6 million international tourists in 2024, marking a 7% rise from the previous year.
Russians accounted for 12.8% of all foreign arrivals, totaling 6.7 million — an annual increase of 6%.
They were followed by Germans at 6.6 million (up 6.9% year-on-year), Britons at 4.4 million (up 16.7%), Iranians at 3.2 million (up 30.9%), and Bulgarians at 2.9 million (up 0.9%).