Asia
To which language should you translate to localize in Turkey?
What we know from our community:
Turkish is the official language of the Republic of Turkey. Some 70 other languages and dialects are also spoken, including various dialects of Caucasian and Kurdish as well as Arabic, Greek, Ladino and Armenian, and Balkan languages like Bosnian, Albanian, Bulgarian, the almost extinct Syriac. Of the 4,000 or so languages currently spoken in the world, Turkish ranks seventh in terms of numbers of speakers and area, being used by around 200 million people. Outside of Turkey, the Turkish diaspora and minorities in the former Ottoman lands (about 30 countries) speak Turkish. Closely related languages fall under the umbrella of Turkic languages and for Turkey, “Istanbul Turkish” is the modern, accepted norm. The language is phonetic, agglutinative, and grammatically genderless, uses some special letters and follows a vowel harmony.
A map of Turkey would quickly reveal that geographically it is a bridge between the west and the east, which makes her also a hub for trade and business. One thing to keep in mind when localizing in Turkey would obviously be to be aware of the cultural nuances and sensitivities. Not labeling the country and/or the culture simply as Middle Eastern or Arabic would go a long way as well as avoiding religious undertones. We take pride in living on a beautiful land that has been a cradle of civilizations for many centuries, speaking a language that dates back even more centuries and we are a very diverse bunch.
Introduction
Language
Official language
Turkish >70%
T-index
0.88%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Other languages
Kurmanji, Arabic and Zazaki
English
Low proficiency (EF) – 70 of 112 countries/regions in the world- 34/35 position in Europe.
Demography
Capital: Ankara
Currency: Turkish lira
Population: 82m
Population density: 110/km2
Economy
GDP: 815,27 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 9,586.6 USD (2021)
Exports: $177 billion (2020)
Statistics
Internet users: 82% penetration, 69.95 million
Unemployment rate: 13.2% (2020)
Urbanisation: 69.65% (2018)
Literacy: 96.15% (2018)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals with comma as decimal separator
Date format: dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 0090
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$207 billion (2020). Gold ($23.7B), Cars ($8.17B), Refined Petroleum ($6.13B), Scrap Iron ($6.01B), and Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($5.84B), importing mostly from Germany ($24B), China ($22.1B), Russia ($13.1B), United States ($10.7B), and Italy ($8.94B).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 68% have an account with a financial institution
• 42% have a credit card
• 16% have a mobile money account
• 36% 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 (2020, World Bank)
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 4th out of 39 Northern African Western Asian countries, 41st out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Exports
$177 billion (2020). Cars ($10.1B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($4.59B), Delivery Trucks ($4.34B), Gold ($3.97B), and Refined Petroleum ($3.51B), exporting mostly to Germany ($16.3B), United Kingdom ($12.7B), United States ($10.3B), Iraq ($9.14B), and Italy ($8.23B).
Main local online stores
MercadoLibre, eBay and Amazon, Netshoes, Alibaba, Garbarino.com, Musimundo.com, Frávega, Apple and Cencosud
Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (rated 56.9 out of 100) ranked 42nd out of 43 European countries ranked 107th out of 186 countries worldwide (2019, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Exports (2018)
Source: OEC
Service Imports (2018)
Source: OEC
Most specialised products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Turkey observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Most complex products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Turkey is not specialized in
Source: OEC
Total distribution of payment methods in Turkey in 2018
Source: Statista
Distribution of e-commerce payment methods in Turkey in 2019
Source: Statista
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language
Turkish
Information channels
Turkey’s failed coup in 2016 had a profound impact on the media. Under emergency rule, scores of media outlets were closed. Dozens of journalists have been detained for supposed membership of a “terrorist organisation” or for spreading “propaganda for a terrorist group”. Broadcast and print media are dominated by pro-government outlets. In the press, critical voices are limited to a few low-circulation publications. Dissenting opinions are more likely to be found online. TV is a leading source of news for most Turks. State-run TRT operates more than a dozen channels 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. Facebook is the most popular social platform, followed by Instagram and YouTube. Twitter is a popular forum for political debate. Freedom House ranked Turkey “Not Free” in its Freedom on the Net 2018 report. It said that the courts routinely ban websites or block pages over content deemed to be linked to terrorism.
The press
Hurriyet – pro-government daily
Hurriyet Daily News – English-language version of Hurriyet
Milliyet – pro-government daily
Cumhuriyet – nationalist-leaning daily
Sabah – pro-government daily, English-language pages
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
News agency
Ensonhaber – news portal
T24 – news website
NTV Radio – private
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
82% penetration, 69.95 million
Share of web traffic by device
69.83% mobile phones, 28.46% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.68% tablet devices, others 0.02%
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
30.97 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
25.67 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 91.4%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 90.3%
Most popular web search engines
Google (84.67%), Yandex (12.33%), Yahoo (1.65%), Bing (0.96%), Yandex Ru (0.26%), Duckduckgo (0.1%)
Most used social media
Facebook (32.22%), Instagram (21.61%), Twitter (21.36%), Pinterest (16.89%), YouTube (7%), Tumblr (0.3%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
77.16 yrs (2020)
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)
Glass Ceiling Index
54.5 out 100, ranked 27th out of 29 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.
Healthcare expenditure
4.6% of GDP (2016)
Average age of the population
31.6 yrs (2020)
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.
Religion
Religion in Turkey is predominantly Muslim around 98%.
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.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Languages and dialects spoken in Turkey
Legend
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Turkish
-
Zazaki
-
Kurdish
-
Azeri
-
Arabic
-
Laz
-
Bulgarian
-
Abkhaz
-
Georgian
-
Aramaic
-
Dimili
-
Adyghe
-
Kabardian
-
Gagauz
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Engin Edeliouglu, Unsplash