Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey
Introduction There are 81 provinces in Turkey (). Among the 81 provinces, 30 provinces are designated '''metropolitan municipalities''' (). Metropolitan municipalities are subdivided into districts (), where each district includes a corresponding district municipality, which is a second tier municipality.
History The first metropolitan municipalities were established in 1984.These were the three most populous cities in Turkey, namely; Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. In each metropolitan municipality a number of second level municipalities (ilçe municipality) were established. In 1986, four new metropolitan municipalities were established: Adana, Bursa,  Gaziantep and Konya. Two years later the total number was increased to eight with the addition of Kayseri. In 1993, seven new metropolitan municipalities were established: Antalya, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Mersin, Kocaeli and Samsun. Following the earthquake of 1999, Sakarya was also declared a metropolitan municipality.Before 2004, only the urban centers with populations of more than 750,000 were declared metropolitan centers. However, in 2004, the concept of metropolitan municipality was redefined in Istanbul and Kocaeli, where thenceforth metropolitan municipality borders would overlap with provincial borders. In 2012, this was extended to other metropolitan municipalities. Thus, all provinces with a population in excess of 750,000 were declared metropolitan municipality and accordingly the number of metropolitan municipalities has sharply increased. The following 13 cities became metropolitan municipalities:  * Aydın* Balıkesir* Denizli* Hatay * Malatya* Manisa* Kahramanmaraş* Mardin* Muğla* Tekirdağ* Trabzon* Şanlıurfa* VanWith the addition of Ordu in 2013, the total number of the metropolitan municipalities increased to 30.
List of metropolitan areas  link=Template:BlankMapTurkeyMM.png(Dark blue: Those provinces before 2012, light blue those after 2012)Metropolitan municipalities Date of establishment Area (km2)GDP (billion US$)Population (2021)Number of districts Adana  05.06.1986  13,844 15.775  2,263,373  15 Ankara  23.03.1984  25,632  74.285  5,747,325 25 Antalya  09.09.1993  20,177  23.213  2,619,832 19 Aydın  06.12.2012  8,116  7.260  1,134,031 17 Balıkesir  06.12.2012  14,583  10.027  1,250,610 20 Bursa  18.06.1986  10,813  33.641  3,147,818 17 Denizli  06.12.2012  12,134  9.062  1,051,056 19 Diyarbakır  09.09.1993  15,101  6.959  1,791,373 17 Erzurum  09.09.1993  25,006  3.918  756,893 20 Eskişehir  09.09.1993  13,960  9.078  898,369 14 Gaziantep  20.06.1986  6,830  16.545  2,130,432 9 Hatay  06.12.2012  5,524  11.298  1,670,712 15 Mersin  09.09.1993  15,010  15.562  1,891,145 13 İstanbul  23.03.1984  5,343  245.207  15,840,000 39 İzmir  23.03.1984  11,891  51.460  4,425,789 30 Kayseri  07.12.1988  16,970  11.956  1,434,357 16 Kocaeli  09.09.1993  3,397  34.442  2,033,441 12 Konya  20.06.1986  13,844  16.616  2,277,017 31 Malatya  06.12.2012  12,259  4.324  808,692 13 Manisa  06.12.2012  13,339  13.633  1,456,626 17Kahramanmaraş06.12.2012 14,520  7.015  1,171,298 11 Mardin  06.12.2012  8,780  4.737  862,757 10 Muğla  06.12.2012  12,654  9.444  1,021,141 13 Ordu  14.03.2013  5,914  3.685  760,872  19 Sakarya 06.03.2000  4,824  9.102  1,060,876  16 Samsun  09.09.1993  9,725  8.332  1,371,274 17 Tekirdağ  06.12.2012  6,190  16.225  1,113,400 11 Trabzon  06.12.2012  4,628  4.897  816,686 18 Şanlıurfa  06.12.2012  19,242  6.413  2,143,020 13 Van  06.12.2012  20,921  3.544 1,141,015 13  783,562 807.143 66,092,128 519Since the total population of Turkey is  83,154,997, the population in the 30 provinces make up 77% of the population of the country.
See also *Elections for Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey*2013 Turkish local government reorganisation
Notes
References
External links * The critical Analysis of Transformation of Turkish metropolitan Municipality System