CHAPTER 4

POPULATION AND LABOR FORCE

The population of Turkey numbered approximately 33 million in 1967, reflecting a growth rate during the present decade of 2.5 percent per year. Population density averages about 110 persons per square mile. The bulk of this population, however, is concentrated in coastal towns along the periphery of the country where climate and soil conditions are most favorable for agriculture, the occupation of nearly three-quarters of the population. The most sparsely populated areas are the Central Anatolian Plateau and the east and southeastern Anatolian region. The great majority of people in the country are Moslems and native speakers of Turkish.

The economically active population is large, including almost everybody who is able to work. An expanding economy and a developing industrial sector have greatly increased employment opportunities and have led many village men to seek employment in the cities. There is a small but growing number of people who are trained in modern techniques. Nevertheless, the main body of the labor force is still engaged in traditional occupations. Nearly half of the total body of laborers are unpaid family workers. Of these, the vast majority are women and children, who help cultivate the fields or tend the animals.

Unemployment and underemployment exist both in the countryside and in the cities. The government is striving to absorb this surplus labor into productive industrial endeavors, as well as to overcome severe manpower shortages of skilled and semiskilled technical and managerial personnel. Efforts are also being directed toward increasing the low productivity of the labor force in all sectors.

POPULATION STRUCTURE

The first official census estimates were undertaken in 1927. Since 1935 they have been taken once every 5 years. According to Turkish law, all persons except the census takers must remain inside their homes from dawn until dusk on the day of the census. The earliest Turkish efforts to collect national vital statistics were

probably more ambitious than accurate in results. A lack of trained census takers and demographers as well as widespread reluctance among villagers to give personal information to government officials were major obstacles to accuracy. However, in the late 1950's, a United Nations technical assistance team of demographic specialists was sent to Turkey. As a result, census takers are now better trained and coverage is more complete than previously. Moreover, the rapid increase in communication facilities and growing literacy have acted to reduce popular mistrust of the census takers. Accordingly, the census estimates are becoming more meaningful.

The population is relatively young. The 1965 census indicated that persons under 20 years of age made up 51 percent of the population, and those between 20 and 39 constituted an additional 28 percent. Hence, nearly 80 percent of the population consists of persons less than 40 years of age (see fig. 9).

In the early days of the Republic the census estimates indicated a preponderance of females over males-a reflection of the great number of men who were lost in maintaining the old Ottoman Empire and later in winning the War of Independence. By 1945, however, males were slightly more numerous than females and this trend has continued to the present. According to the 1965 official census, the ratio was estimated to be 50.8 males to 49.2 females.

The Turks are a relatively homogeneous group. About 99 percent are Moslem. Approximately 92 percent speak Turkish as their mother tongue. The minorities which are present can be divided into Moslem and non-Moslem. The two major Moslem minorities are the Kurds and the Arabs. Included in the non-Moslem minority are the Greeks, the Armenians, and the Jews (see ch. 5, Ethnic Groups and Languages).

The Kurds, comprising approximately 6 percent of the population, are the largest minority group. They are concentrated mainly in eastern Turkey near the borders of Iran and Iraq. Pastoralists and fierce fighters, they have continually resisted assimilation and have striven to preserve their cultural identity.

The Arabs, slightly over 1 percent of the 1965 population, constitute a second Moslem minority group. They are found chiefly in Hatay and other southern provinces along the Iraqi-Syrian borders. Most are farmers or nomadic herdsmen, wandering in and out of Turkey with no particular national allegiances. Unlike the Kurds, their integration into Turkish society presents no problem. The Greeks, Armenians, and Jews form the bulk of the nonMoslem minority groups. In 1968 they numbered about 260,000 or about 1 percent of the total population. Most of them live in the western part of the country, chiefly in Istanbul and Izmir, where

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AGE GROUP

they maintain a somewhat autonomous cultural identity. During the Ottoman rule, they were more numerous and were granted special privileges by the government. However, many of the Greeks and Armenians left the country prior to and in the aftermath of the War of Independence and the subsequent founding of the republic. Additionally, after World War II, Turkey, which had gained a substantial number of well-educated Jewish refugees, granted permission to the Jewish subjects to migrate to the new state of Israel. While about 35,000 Jews left at that time, close to the same number chose to remain in Turkey.

The loss of these non-Moslem elements created something of an economic vacuum. Noted as astute businessmen, bankers, professional workers, traders, and small shopkeepers, the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews had been a valuable economic asset under the Sultanate. The entry of Turks into the commercial, industrial, and professional pursuits formerly performed by the non-Moslem segments of the society was slow at first. However, changing social attitudes and values have brought an increasing number of Turks into these fields.

Throughout Turkish history economic activity has occurred along the 4,500 miles of coastline which surround Turkey on three sides. In 1965 population density was greatest in the western section of the country, especially in the Marmara Region which supported 210 people per square mile. Concentration was also heavy along the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean and Aegean Regions. Such peripheral development is the result of more favorable climate along these coastal areas plus the ready access to trade routes (see fig. 10).

The village continues to remain the principal form of settlement. According to the 1965 population report, 65 percent of the population was located in areas with 5,000 inhabitants or less. Of these 20.6 million rural inhabitants, the vast majority are settled villagers, earning their living in agriculture and animal husbandry. An indeterminate number are nomads who are on the move at least part of the year. In the last 15 years increasing numbers of these village people have been migrating toward primary and secondary cities.

POPULATION DYNAMICS

In the latest official census of October 1965 Turkey's population was estimated at 31.4 million, more than twice that recorded in the census of 1927. The rapid increase in population which Turkey has experienced did not occur evenly over the intervening years (see table 2). Indeed, Turkey's population grew rather slowly