The impact of rural exodus on the occupational patterns of the cities (Ankara's case)

Abstract

Due to already well known causes, after World War II, social mobility has witnessed a rapid and steady growth resulting in a population increase at a rate of 3% annually in Turkey. In 1927 the population of Turkey was only 13.5 million, in 1965 it has reached 32 million, an increase of two and half times within forty years. This has occurred particularly in rural areas, causing a continuous city-wards migration on a large scale. This in turn raised the sizes as well as the numbers of cities. In 1955 there were only 17 cities with a population above 50.000, whereas by 1965 the figure was doubled. Parallel with this development the population of cities like Istanbul, Izmir, Adana, Samsun, Ankara and Konya to mention only a few, also grew three or four times larger, in some even more. In 1945 the population of Ankara was 226,712. The following five year interval censuses of 1950, 1955, 1960 and 1965 showed consecutive increases by 288, 536, 451, 650, 667 and 902, 118 respectively for each period. From 1955 to 1960 the city's population reached about a million, an increase of 450, 877.