Based on IBB data, the number of foreigners living in Istanbul has sky-rocketed

İSKİ (Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration) has revealed the number of foreign residents in Istanbul. Buğra Gökce, Deputy Secretary-General of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB), shared data related to the number of foreign residents and housing issues in Istanbul on his social media account.

According to Gökce, based on water consumption data from İSKİ, there are approximately 2.5 million foreign residents living in Istanbul. He stated, “If the number of foreigners living in Istanbul were a city on its own, it would be the 9th largest city in Europe. While there are 2.1 million people living in the city center of Paris, Vienna has a population of 1.9 million, and Barcelona has only 1.6 million.”

A TENFOLD INCREASE

Gökce emphasized that the number of foreign subscribers to İSKİ had increased nearly tenfold in the past 8 years, saying, “In 2019, there were 145,000 foreign subscribers, and this number has now reached 255,985.”

While the average household size in Istanbul is around 3.3, the household size for foreign subscribers can often exceed 8-10 due to multiple households living together. This includes temporary refugees, individuals who have acquired citizenship through real estate purchases, those with temporary work or residence permits, as well as undocumented immigrants. The total foreign population in Istanbul now accounts for 16% of our citizen population,” he added.