Foreign Residents in Türkiye: Which Cities Stand Out?
Foreign residents and international migration in 2025. The city chart includes Turkish citizens; it does not rank foreign residents alone or establish reasons for choosing a city.
Prepared by MasVeri · · Our editorial method
Six years of foreign resident totals
Registered foreign residents totalled 1,519,515 at the end of 2025, up 38,968 or about 2.6% from 2024. The six-year series is uneven: 1,333,410 in 2020, a rise to 1,823,836 in 2022, declines in 2023–2024 and a recovery in 2025. The latest total remains 304,321, or about 16.7%, below 2022.
One year of growth does not establish uninterrupted expansion. This series measures year-end residents, not every arrival and departure during the year.
Registered foreign residents in Türkiye
People · 2020–2025
ADNKS foreign resident scope excludes Syrians under temporary protection and visits shorter than 90 days.
Cities: İstanbul, Antalya and Ankara
İstanbul received 42.2% of all international immigration into Türkiye in 2025, Antalya 9.1%, Ankara 6.7%, İzmir 3.1% and Bursa 2.9%. The top three total 58.0% and the top five 64.0%, illustrating geographic concentration.
These shares include Turkish and foreign citizens. They are not a ranking of foreign residents alone. In particular, İstanbul’s 42.2% share cannot be presented as its share of the foreign resident population. A flow and a population stock measure different things.
Leading provinces in international arrivals
% · 2025
Provincial shares of all international arrivals, including Turkish and foreign citizens; not foreign residents alone.
Arriving and departing foreign migrants
Foreign immigration was 301,877 and foreign emigration 248,097, giving a net flow of +53,780. Foreign citizens represented approximately 76.7% of all 393,829 incoming migrants. This describes the foreign component of international movement.
The net flow is not equal to the 38,968 rise in the resident stock. Births, deaths, citizenship and administrative registration can affect stocks, and statistical scopes differ. We do not assign numerical contributions to those processes from these totals.
Migration flows of foreign citizens
People · 2025
Annual flows, not equal to the change in year-end population.
Leading countries of citizenship
Turkmenistan accounted for 23.4% of incoming foreign migrants, Azerbaijan 8.3%, Uzbekistan 6.9%, Egypt 6.1% and Afghanistan 5.8%. Together the five citizenships represented 50.5%. These are citizenship shares among arriving foreign migrants.
They are not tourist shares and do not determine a person’s language, income, occupation or destination city. Multiplying national citizenship shares by city shares would not produce valid country-by-city counts. A cross-tabulation is needed.
Citizenship of arriving foreign migrants
% · 2025
Top five citizenships of arriving foreign migrants, not tourists or the resident stock.
Age structure and service questions
Among all incoming migrants, ages 20–24 accounted for 16.3%, ages 25–29 for 13.7% and ages 30–34 for 11.5%: a combined 41.5%. The young-adult component is substantial, but Turkish citizens are included in these figures.
Age can guide questions about housing, education and employment services. It does not establish that migrants are students or workers. Migration reasons and labour status require separate evidence.
Selected ages of incoming migrants
% · 2025
Provincial shares of all international arrivals, including Turkish and foreign citizens; not foreign residents alone.
Residence, migration, tourism and housing differ
A resident stock differs from annual immigration. Tourism measures visits rather than permanent residence, while house sales to foreigners do not count residents or prove occupancy. One person can make several purchases or live elsewhere.
A province prominent in foreign house purchases should not automatically be ranked as the most popular place of residence. This report keeps those concepts separate rather than combining unlike indicators into an attractiveness score.
What can be said about motivations?
The title frames a question about settlement patterns; it does not claim measured preferences. These administrative data do not ask why a person chose a city. We do not quantify the roles of work, education, family, climate or living costs.
The analytical approach is to distinguish resident stock, new migration and demographic composition. Local service decisions still need current provincial foreign-population figures and household-level research. National shares cannot establish local demand.
Sources, scope and data limitations
Sources are TÜİK ADNKS 2020–2025 and International Migration Statistics 2025, released 24 June 2026. The foreign resident definition excludes Syrians under temporary protection and short-term visitors.
The foreign-resident provincial spreadsheet could not be directly verified for this edition, so no foreign-only city counts are published. City shares are clearly labelled total international immigration. Publication in 2026 does not turn the 2025 reference data into 2026 observations.
Source and coverage
2025 ADNKS and migration. City shares include Turkish citizens; not a foreign-resident ranking.
Registered foreign residents in Türkiye · TÜİK ↗Leading provinces in international arrivals · TÜİK ↗Migration flows of foreign citizens · TÜİK ↗Citizenship of arriving foreign migrants · TÜİK ↗Selected ages of incoming migrants · TÜİK ↗Executive summary
2025- Foreign residents rose about 2.6% in 2025 but remained below 2022.
- İstanbul, Antalya and Ankara received 58% of all international arrivals, not foreign arrivals alone.
- Residence and migration records do not establish city-choice motives.