Over 460,000 people immigrate to Turkey in 2017

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

The number of immigrants in Turkey rose 22.4 percent reaching 466,333 in 2017, compared to previous year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Wednesday.

52.3 percent of migrated people were men and 47.7 percent were women in 2017, TurkStat said.

26.6 percent of all immigrants were comprised of Iraqi citizens, 10.4 percent Afghans, 7.7 percent Syrians, 5.7 percent Azerbaijanis and 5.6 percent were citizens of Turkmenistan, it added.

"In 2017, it was seen that 12.3 percent of the immigrant population were in the 25-29 age group. This age group was followed by 20-24 age group with 11.6 percent and 30-34 age group with 10.8 percent, respectively," TurkStat said.

Istanbul drew the highest number of immigrants with 166,044 people. The city is followed by capital Ankara (46,475) and the Mediterranean city Antalya (21,888).

Meanwhile, in this period, 253,640 people -- 54 percent men and 46 percent women -- emigrated from Turkey in 2017, up 42.5 percent from 2016.

Iraqis took the first place in this group with 20.4 percent, Azerbaijanis (7.5 percent), Syrians (6.7 percent), Afghans (4.6 percent) and Chinese (4.5 percent).

"When the age distribution of the emigrant population was analyzed, it was seen that 15.5 percent of them were in the 25-29 age group. This age group was followed by 20-24 age group with 14.4 percent and 30-34 age group with 12.3 percent, respectively," TurkStat added.

75,849 people emigrated from Istanbul, 27,379 from Ankara and 15,056 from Antalya.

Turkey also hosts the highest number of refugees -- nearly 4 million -- in the world, according to official figures. The number of Syrian refugees living in the country was 3.54 million as of July.