Districts Of Turkey

The 81 provinces of Turkey are divided into 973 districts (''ilçeler''; sing. ''ilçe''). In the early Turkish Republic and in the Ottoman Empire, the corresponding unit was the '' kaza''.

Most provinces bear the same name as their respective provincial capital districts. However, many urban provinces, designated as greater municipalities, have a center consisting of multiple districts, such as the provincial capital of Ankara province, The City of Ankara, comprising nine separate districts. Additionally four provinces, Kocaeli, Sakarya, İçel and Hatay have their capital district named differently from their province, as İzmit, Adapazarı, Mersin and Antakya respectively.

A district may cover both rural and urban areas. In many provinces, one district of a province is designated the central district (''merkez ilçe'') from which the district is administered. The central district is administered by an appointed provincial deputy governor and other non-central districts by an appointed sub-governor ('' kaymakam'') from their district center (''ilçe merkezi'') municipality. In these central districts the district center municipality also serves as the provincial center municipality. Both the deputy governor and sub-governors are responsible to the province governor ('' vali''). Greater Municipalities, however, are administrated differently where a separate seat of municipality exists for the entire province, having administrative power over all districts of the province.

Local government

Municipalities ('' belediye'') can be created in, and are subordinate to, the districts in which they are located. Each district has at least one municipality ('' belde'') in the district center from which both the municipal government for that municipality and the district government is administered. A municipality is headed by an elected mayor (''belediye başkanı'') who administers the local government for defined municipal matters. More and more settlements which are outside district centers have municipalities as well, usually because their population requires one. A municipality's borders usually correspond to that of the urban settlement it covers, but may also include some undeveloped land.

Villages (''köy'') outside municipalities and quarters or neighborhoods ('' mahalle'') within municipalities are the lowest level of local government, and are also the most numerous unit of local government in Turkey. They elect '' muhtars'' to care for specific administrative matters such as residence registration. The designation slightly differs (''köy muhtarı'' for village muhtar, ''mahalle muhtarı'' for quarter muhtar) and the tasks, which are largely similar but are adapted to their locality.

Greater municipalities (''büyükşehir belediyesi'') exist for large cities like İstanbul and İzmir that consist of an extra administrative layer run by an elected head mayor, who oversee the municipalities and mayors within the province. Currently, 30 provinces are administrated by greater municipalities in addition to having separate municipalities for every district within the province.

List of districts with population

The districts and their populations (as of December 31, 2019) are listed below, by region and by province (with capital district in bold text).

Aegean Region

Aydın Subregion

=

Aydın Province

=

*Population: 1,110,972
** Bozdoğan: 33,627
** Buharkent: 12,793
** Çine: 49,339
** Didim: 86,688
**Efeler: 293,816
** Germencik: 43,968
**İncirliova: 52,556
** Karacasu: 18,389
** Karpuzlu: 10,952
** Koçarlı: 23,397
** Köşk: 27,846
** Kuşadası: 116,966
**Kuyucak: 26,671
** Nazilli: 159,544
**Söke: 121,481
**Sultanhisar: 20,458
** Yenipazar: 12,481

= Denizli Province

=

*Population: 1,037,208
**Acıpayam: 55,351
** Babadağ: 6,445
** Baklan: 5,524
**Bekilli: 6,826
** Beyağaç: 6,397
** Bozkurt: 12,671
** Buldan: 27,179
** Çal: 18,869
** Çameli: 18,039
** Çardak: 8,736
** Çivril: 60,333
** Merkezefendi: 311,177
**Pamukkale: 346,625
**Güney: 9,802
** Honaz: 34,343
**Kale: 20,310
** Sarayköy: 30,810
**Serinhisar: 14,451
**Tavas: 43,320

= Muğla Province

=

*Population: 983,142
** Bodrum: 175,435
** Dalaman: 42,024
** Datça: 22,403
** Fethiye: 162,686
** Kavaklıdere: 10,792
** Köyceğiz: 36,926
** Marmaris: 94,749
** Menteşe: 115,059
** Milas: 141,107
** Ortaca: 50,027
** Seydikemer: 61,657
** Ula: 25,402
**Yatağan: 44,879

İzmir Subregion

= İzmir Province

=

*Population: 4,367,251
** İzmir: 2,972,900
***Balçova: 79,681
***Bayraklı: 312,264
*** Bornova: 450,992
*** Buca: 510,695
*** Çiğli: 200,211
*** Gaziemir: 137,808
***Güzelbahçe: 33,725
*** Karabağlar: 480,925
***Karşıyaka: 349,290
*** Konak: 351,572
*** Narlıdere: 65,737
**Northern districts
*** Aliağa: 96,974
*** Bergama: 103,867
*** Dikili: 43,806
*** Foça: 32,264
***Kınık: 28,802
*** Menemen: 179,881
**Southern districts
***Bayındır: 40,414
***Beydağ: 12,540
*** Çeşme: 44,363
*** Karaburun: 10,759
*** Kemalpaşa: 107,556
*** Kiraz: 43,925
*** Menderes: 97,123
*** Ödemiş: 132,876
*** Seferihisar: 44,526
***Selçuk: 36,824
*** Tire: 84,804
*** Torbalı: 185,908
*** Urla: 67,339

Manisa Subregion

= Afyonkarahisar Province

=

*Population: 729,483
** Afyonkarahisar: 306,908
**Başmakçı