Churches in Istanbul

Religions

Religion

Percent

Sunnis

82 %

Alevis

16 %

Alawites

1 %

Christians

0.2 %

Others

0.8 %

According to official statistics, about 99 % of the Turkish population are Muslims, of whom approx. 82 % are Sunnis, 16 % Alevis and 1–2 % Alawites.

In addition, 0.2 % Christians (125,000) and 0.04 % Jews (23,000) live in Turkey. A small number of Yazidis and Dönme also live here. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, about 20 % of the population on the territory of today's Turkey were still Christians (especially Armenians and Greeks), and in 1923 more than 120,000 Jews were counted.

The figures are of limited significance, because every inhabitant of Turkey who is not explicitly declared as belonging to another religion is automatically registered as a Muslim. There is no equivalent to formally leaving the church, so atheists, agnostics and citizens who do not belong to any religious community are also registered as Muslims in the official statistics. The exact number of Muslims and of inhabitants without religious affiliation is therefore not known.

Since the founding of the Republic, the separation of state and religion has applied. The status of Islam as the state religion was abolished in 1928 under the founder of the state, Atatürk, by an amendment to the constitution.[29] Since then Turkey has regarded itself as a secular state with no religious preferences. Thus, unlike in many Muslim states, Sharia law does not apply in Turkey. In recent years, conservative religious currents among the population have gained considerable influence.

The state Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB) administers the Sunni institutions. Despite the separation of state and religion laid down in Article 2 of the Turkish Constitution (Article 2: “The Republic of Turkey is a […] democratic, secular and social state governed by the rule of law.”), the DİB, which has far-reaching powers, is attached to the office of the Turkish Prime Minister and is subordinate to the Prime Minister in office. The DİB issues and commissions Islamic legal opinions (fetva). In 2008 the DİB stated in a fetva that turning away from Islam to another religion is permitted. Apart from punishment in the afterlife, the Koran does not provide for any worldly punishment for apostasy from Islam.

Social situation

The state provides basic medical care for all citizens. In 2007 there were 1.23 doctors per 1000 inhabitants.

In the period from 2010 to 2015, life expectancy in Turkey was 74.8 years (71.5 years for men and 78.1 years for women). In the ranking according to the prosperity indicator Human Development Index, Turkey ranked 72nd out of 188 assessed states in 2014 and thus falls into the group of states with “high human development”; compared with 2009, the country improved by 16 positions.

According to a Credit Suisse study for 2014, Turkey has a Gini coefficient of 0.84 and is thus a country with a “high degree of wealth inequality”.[35] Wealth inequality increased between 2002 and 2014: the share of the richest one percent of the Turkish population rose during this period from 39.4 percent of total wealth to 54.3 percent.[36] According to Forbes, there were 29 billionaires in Turkey in 2017