TURKISH
Language Stats
Number of Speakers
75 million in Turkey, several more million worldwide
Where It's Spoken
Primarily in Turkey, and also in parts of Iraq, Syria, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, and Greece
Turkish – An Overview
Turkish is spoken throughout the region of the former Ottoman empire, in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Northern Africa. Turkish is the primary language of Turkey. It is a rapidly growing language, with an estimated 1.6% growth rate of speakers per year.
Turkey’s population is estimated at 84 million, with the government claiming 99.8% of the population as Muslim; the remaining 0.2% are mostly Christians and Jews.
Turkey hosts a vast number of refugees from the Syrian civil war and other conflicts that some other countries cannot or will not take in. Turkey is an indefinite home to 3.6 million Syrians, alone.