Administrative division of Turkey
Turkey is divided into 81 provinces (Turkish :il ). Each province is divided into a number ofdistricts (ilçe merkez ilçe metropolitan municipality designated provinces, the central district bears the name of the province (e.g. the city/district ofRize is the central district ofRize Province ). In theOttoman Empire , the corresponding unit was thevilayet
Each province is administered by an appointed governor (vali Ministry of the Interior .
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and theofficial establishment of the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923 , changes were made to the administrative system. Two years later,Ardahan ,Beyoğlu ,Çatalca ,Dersim ,Ergani ,Gelibolu ,Genç ,Kozan ,Oltu ,Muş ,Siverek andÜsküdar provinces were transformed into districts. In 1927,Doğubayazıt was transformed into a district and was made a part ofAğrı . In 1929, Muş became a province again andBitlis became a district. Four years later,Aksaray ,Cebelibereket ,Hakkâri andŞebinkarahisar became districts,Mersin andSilifke were merged to form a new province calledİçel , andArtvin andRize were merged to form a new province calledÇoruh , bringing the number down to fifty-six. In 1936, Rize,Dersim and Hakkâri became provinces again, in the same year Dersim was renamed Tunceli; 3 years later in 1939,Hatay wasannexed to Turkey and became a province. In 1953, it was decided thatUşak would become a province and thatKırşehir would be transformed into a district, one year later in 1954Adıyaman ,Nevşehir and Sakarya gained province status. In 1956, the name of Çoruh province was changed toArtvin , and in 1957 Kırşehir's province status was restored. After this year, there were no changes in the number of provinces for the next 32 years until Aksaray,Bayburt ,Karaman andKırıkkale became provinces in 1989 along withBatman andŞırnak in 1990;Bartın in 1991;Ardahan andIğdır in 1992;Yalova ,Karabük andKilis in 1995;Osmaniye in 1996, andDüzce in 1999.
Below is a list of the 81 provinces of Turkey, sorted according to theirlicense plate codes. Initially, the order of the codes matched the alphabetical order of the province names. After Zonguldak (code 67), the ordering is not alphabetical, but in the order of the creation of provinces, as these provinces were created more recently and thus their plate numbers were assigned after the initial set of codes had been assigned.
Provinces and metropolitan municipalities of Turkey
Provinces of the Republic of Turkey Name Capital Area Population Population Population[ 1] Population density km2 sq mi 01 Adana Adana 14,045.56 5,423.02 1,849,478 2,102,375 2,263,373 161.1 02 Adıyaman Adıyaman 7,606.16 2,936.75 623,811 594,163 632,148 83.1 03 Afyonkarahisar Afyonkarahisar 14,718.63 5,682.89 812,416 701,461 744,179 50.6 04 Ağrı Ağrı 11,498.67 4,439.66 528,744 553,241 524,069 45.6 05 Amasya Amasya 5,703.78 2,202.24 365,231 323,331 335,331 58.8 06 Ankara Ankara 25,401.94 9,807.74 4,007,860 4,868,418 5,747,325 226.3 07 Antalya Antalya 20,790.56 8,027.28 1,719,751 2,035,563 2,619,832 126 08 Artvin Artvin 7,367.10 2,844.45 191,934 166,177 169,543 23 09 Aydın Aydın 7,904.43 3,051.92 950,757 999,131 1,134,031 143.5 10 Balıkesir Balıkesir 14,472.73 5,587.95 1,076,347 1,155,216 1,250,610 86.4 11 Bilecik Bilecik 4,306.77 1,662.85 194,326 203,157 228,334 53 12 Bingöl Bingöl 8,253.51 3,186.70 253,739 261,276 283,112 34.3 13 Bitlis Bitlis 7,094.50 2,739.20 388,678 336,226 352,277 49.7 14 Bolu Bolu 8,323.39 3,213.68 270,654 276,976 320,014 38.4 15 Burdur Burdur 7,134.95 2,754.82 256,803 250,984 273,716 38.4 16 Bursa Bursa 10,886.38 4,203.25 2,125,140 2,640,128 3,147,818 289.2 17 Çanakkale Çanakkale 9,950.43 3,841.88 464,975 489,298 557,276 56 18 Çankırı Çankırı 7,491.89 2,892.63 270,355 175,716 196,515 26.2 19 Çorum Çorum 12,796.21 4,940.64 597,065 534,825 526,282 41.1 20 Denizli Denizli 11,804.19 4,557.62 850,029 940,532 1,051,056 89 21 Diyarbakır Diyarbakır 15,204.01 5,870.30 1,362,708 1,561,110 1,791,373 117.8 22 Edirne Edirne 6,097.91 2,354.42 402,606 400,554 412,115 67.6 23 Elazığ Elazığ 9,281.45 3,583.59 569,616 559,063 588,088 63.4 24 Erzincan Erzincan 11,727.55 4,528.03 316,841 214,863 237,351 20.2 25 Erzurum Erzurum 25,330.90 9,780.32 937,389 781,626 756,893 29.9 26 Eskişehir Eskişehir 13,902.03 5,367.60 706,009 778,421 898,369 64.6 27 Gaziantep Gaziantep 6,844.84 2,642.81 1,285,249 1,739,569 2,130,432 311.2 28 Giresun Giresun 6,831.58 2,637.69 523,819 420,433 450,154 65.9 29 Gümüşhane Gümüşhane 6,437.01 2,485.34 186,953 129,045 150,119 23.3 30 Hakkâri Hakkâri 7,178.88 2,771.78 236,581 271,405 278,218 38.8 31 Hatay Antakya 5,831.36 2,251.50 1,253,726 1,472,282 1,670,712 286.5 32 Isparta Isparta 8,871.08 3,425.14 513,681 412,039 445,678 50.2 33 Mersin Mersin 15,512.25 5,989.31 1,651,400 1,660,522 1,891,145 121.9 34 Istanbul 5,315.33 2,052.26 10,018,735 13,565,798 15,840,900 2980.2 35 İzmir İzmir 12,015.61 4,639.25 3,370,866 3,952,036 4,425,789 368.3 36 Kars Kars 10,139.09 3,914.72 325,016 306,238 281,077 27.7 37 Kastamonu Kastamonu 13,157.98 5,080.32 375,476 360,694 375,592 28.5 38 Kayseri Kayseri 17,109.33 6,605.95 1,060,432 1,251,907 1,434,357 83.8 39 Kırklareli Kırklareli 6,299.78 2,432.36 328,461 340,977 366,363 58.2 40 Kırşehir Kırşehir 6,530.32 2,521.37 253,239 221,935 242,944 37.2 41 Kocaeli İzmit 3,625.29 1,399.73 1,206,085 1,595,643 2,033,441 560.9 42 Konya Konya 40,813.52 15,758.19 2,192,166 2,033,227 2,277,017 55.8 43 Kütahya Kütahya 12,013.57 4,638.47 656,903 564,403 578,640 48.2 44 Malatya Malatya 12,102.70 4,672.88 853,658 749,225 808,692 66.8 45 Manisa Manisa 13,228.50 5,107.55 1,260,169 1,337,731 1,456,626 110.1 46 Kahramanmaraş Kahramanmaraş 14,456.74 5,581.78 1,002,384 1,052,336 1,171,298 81 47 Mardin Mardin 8,806.04 3,400.03 705,098 758,181 862,757 98 48 Muğla Muğla 12,949.21 4,999.72 715,328 837,804 1,021,141 78.9 49 Muş Muş 8,067.16 3,114.75 453,654 412,430 405,228 50.2 50 Nevşehir Nevşehir 5,391.64 2,081.72 309,914 284,150 308,003 57.1 51 Niğde Niğde 7,365.29 2,843.75 348,081 337,456 363,725 49.4 52 Ordu Ordu 5,952.49 2,298.27 887,765 712,998 760,872 127.8 53 Rize Rize 3,921.98 1,514.28 365,938 322,367 345,662 88.1 54 Sakarya Adapazarı 4,880.19 1,884.25 756,168 886,382 1,060,876 217.4 55 Samsun Samsun 9,364.10 3,615.50 1,209,137 1,250,598 1,371,274 146.4 56 Siirt Siirt 5,473.29 2,113.25 263,676 309,599 331,980 60.7 57 Sinop Sinop 5,816.55 2,245.78 225,574 203,288 218,408 37.5 58 Sivas Sivas 28,567.34 11,029.91 755,091 627,195 636,121 22.3 59 Tekirdağ Tekirdağ 6,342.30 2,448.78 623,591 824,223 1,113,400 175.6 60 Tokat Tokat 10,072.62 3,889.06 828,027 592,481 602,567 59.8 61 Trabzon Trabzon 4,664.04 1,800.80 975,137 757,857 816,684 175.1 62 Tunceli Tunceli 7,685.66 2,967.45 93,584 84,896 83,645 10.9 63 Şanlıurfa Şanlıurfa 19,336.21 7,465.75 1,443,422 1,701,127 2,143,020 110.8 64 Uşak Uşak 5,363.09 2,070.70 322,313 340,636 373,183 69.6 65 Van Van 19,414.14 7,495.84 877,524 1,059,734 1,141,015 58.8 66 Yozgat Yozgat 14,074.09 5,434.04 682,919 465,214 418,500 29.7 67 Zonguldak Zonguldak 3,309.86 1,277.94 615,599 614,775 589,684 178.2 68 Aksaray Aksaray 7,965.51 3,075.50 396,084 379,163 429,069 53.9 69 Bayburt Bayburt 3,739.08 1,443.67 97,358 76,859 85,042 22.7 70 Karaman Karaman 8,868.90 3,424.30 243,210 234,441 258,838 29.2 71 Kırıkkale Kırıkkale 4,569.76 1,764.39 383,508 276,847 275,968 60.4 72 Batman Batman 4,659.21 1,798.93 456,734 520,883 626,319 134.4 73 Şırnak Şırnak 7,151.57 2,761.24 353,197 453,828 546,589 76.4 74 Bartın Bartın 2,080.36 803.23 184,178 187,129 201,711 97 75 Ardahan Ardahan 4,967.63 1,918.01 133,756 107,776 94,932 19.1 76 Iğdır Iğdır 3,587.81 1,385.26 168,634 187,842 203,159 56.6 77 Yalova Yalova 850.46 328.36 168,593 205,664 291,001 342.2 78 Karabük Karabük 4,108.80 1,586.42 225,102 220,401 249,287 60.7 79 Kilis Kilis 1,427.76 551.26 114,724 124,276 145,826 102.1 80 Osmaniye Osmaniye 3,195.99 1,233.98 458,782 483,639 553,012 173 81 Düzce Düzce 2,592.95 1,001.14 314,266 342,281 400,976 154.6
The province's ISO code suffix number, the first two digits of thevehicle registration plates of Turkey , and the first digits of thepostal codes in Turkey are the same. TheNomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) codes are different.
A 1927 map of the provinces of Turkey which was published before the alphabet reform
