Economy

Imports
$337 billion (2023). Gold ($30.1B), Refined Petroleum ($20.3B), Cars ($18.5B), Petroleum Gas ($8.38B), and Scrap Iron ($7.59B), importing mostly from China ($44.6B), Russia ($31B), Germany ($29.1B), Switzerland ($19.3B), and United States ($16.6B).

In 2023, Turkey was the world’s biggest importer of Scrap Iron ($7.59B), Semi-Finished Iron ($3.36B), Polycarboxylic Acids ($1.94B), Non-Retail Synthetic Filament Yarn ($1.46B), and Textile Fiber Machinery ($697M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 73.4% have an account with a financial institution
• 32.6% have a credit card.
• 18.3% have a mobile money account.
• 22.4% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 76.8 out of 100) ranked 6th out of 24 European and Central Asian countries, ranked 33rd out of 190 countries worldwide (2024, World Bank).

Main local online stores
Gitti Gidiyor, Hepsiburada, Araba.com and Trendyol.

Exports
$272 billion (2023). Cars ($12.1B), Gold ($10.3B), Refined Petroleum ($9.37B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($7.62B), and Jewellery ($7.38B), exporting mostly to Germany ($24.7B), United States ($15.9B), United Kingdom ($15.1B), United Arab Emirates ($14.7B), and Iraq ($12.8B).

In 2023, Turkey was the world’s biggest exporter of Hand-Woven Rugs ($2.28B), Raw Iron Bars ($2.16B), Cement ($1.65B), Wheat Flours ($1.5B), and Borates ($751M).

Economic freedom
‘Mostly not free’ (rated 56.1 out of 100) ranked 42nd out of 44 European countries, ranked 111th out of 184 countries worldwide (2024, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 4th out of 39 Northern African Western Asian countries, 39th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Source: OEC

Media

Media language
Turkish

Information channels
The media are dominated by pro-government outlets. In the press, critical voices are limited to a few low-circulation publications. Television is the leading news medium, although audiences are gravitating online. State broadcaster TRT operates in many languages, including the main minority language, Kurmanji Kurdish. The biggest media group is government-friendly Demiroren, which owns the popular Hurriyet and Posta newspapers and CNN Turk and Kanal D TVs. Critical news outlets can face police raids, tax fines and other hostile measures. Most arrested journalists are charged with membership in, or propaganda for, groups considered as terrorist organisations. Reporters for Kurdish media are regularly detained and jailed. “Insulting the president” is a crime. The courts routinely ban websites or block specific pages, including opposition news sites and content deemed to be linked to terrorism. A 2020 law gives the government significant powers to regulate social media content. It obliges major platforms to store user data in Turkey and appoint a local representative to carry out content removal requests.

Online

Ensonhaber – news portal
T24 – news website
Internet Haber – news site
Bianet – news site, pages in English

The press

Hurriyet – pro-government daily
Hurriyet Daily News – English-language version of Hurriyet
Sozcu – nationalist, secularist daily
Milliyet – pro-government daily
Cumhuriyet – nationalist-leaning daily
Sabah – pro-government daily, English-language pages.
Daily Sabah – English-language daily

Television

Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) – state broadcaster, operates multiple networks
Star TV – private
Show TV – private
Kanal D – private
ATV – private
Fox – private
NTV – private, news
CNN Turk – private, news

Radio

Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) – state broadcaster, networks include, speech-based TRT Radio 1, news station TRT Radio Haber, Kurdish-language TRT Radio Kurdi
Show Radyo – private
NTV Radio – private

Internet Data

Internet users
88.3% penetration, 77.3 million

Share of web traffic by device
73.10% mobile phones, 25.56% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.32% tablet devices, others 0.02%

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
49.76  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
48 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 91.4%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 96.5%

Most popular web search engines
Google (58.06%), Yandex (38.96%), Yahoo! (1.27%), Bing (1.21%), Duckduckgo (0.45%), other (0.05%)

Most used social media
Instagram (50.19%), Facebook (31.31%), YouTube (9.7%), X (4.93%), Pinterest (2.51%), LinkedIn (0.51%), Reddit (0.49%), other (0.37%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
78 years (2022)

Graduates (tertiary education)
Tertiary attainment is still low in Turkey. About one-third (33%) of Turkey’s young adults (25-34 year-olds) had attained tertiary education by 2018, 11 percentage points below the OECD average of 44%. Turkey has made substantial progress in the last decade, however, with the proportion of young adults attaining tertiary education more than doubling from 15% in 2008. (2019)

Religion
Religion in Turkey is predominantly Muslim around 98%.

Current education expenditure
90.4% of GDP (2021)

Glass Ceiling Index
35.7 out 100, ranked 28th out of 30 countries.

The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.

World Happiness Index
Turkey ranked 112 out of 146 countries, with a score of 4.744.

Current healthcare expenditure
4.57% of GDP (2021)

Gender
At first glance, Turkey appears highly Europeanised, with women taking their place alongside men in the workplace. However, Turkish tradition differs from other European countries and Turkey remains a country where the bulk of activities are centred around men; men are the dominant gender with women taking secondary roles.

Cultural Curiosities
Due to its geographical position, Turkey’s culture is influenced by both Europe and the Middle East. As a result, its cultural norms are a real mix. The Turkish are very warm and friendly, so when it comes to business in Turkey, networking and trust are fundamental. 

Corruption perceptions Index
Turkey scored 36 out of 100, ranked 101 out 180 countries worldwide (2024).

CO2 emissions
5.66 metric tons per capita