Demographics
| Population of İzmir | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Population | ||
| 2010 | 3,354,934 | ||
| 2009 | 2,727,968 | ||
| 2007 | 2,606,294 | ||
| 2000 | 2,232,265 | ||
| 1990 | 1,758,780 | ||
| 1985 | 1,489,817 | ||
| 1970 | 554,000 | ||
| 1965 | 442,000 | ||
| 1960 | 371,000 | ||
| 1955 | 286,000 | ||
| 1950 | 231,000 | ||
| 1945 | 200,000 | ||
| 1940 | 184,000 | ||
| 1935 | 171,000 | ||
| 1927 | 154,000 | ||
| 1918 | 300,000 | ||
| 1890 | 200,000 | ||
| 1660 | 60,000–70,000 | ||
| 1640 | 35,000–40,000 | ||
| 1595 | 2,000 | ||
The period after the 1960s and the 1970s saw another blow to İzmir's tissue – as serious as the 1922 fire for many inhabitants – when local administrations tended to neglect İzmir's traditional values and landmarks. Some administrators were not always in tune with the central government in Ankara and regularly fell short of subsidies, and the city absorbed huge immigration waves from Anatolian inland causing a population explosion. Today it is not surprising to see many inhabitants of İzmir (in line with natives of a number of other prominent Turkish cities) look back to a cozier and more manageable city, which came to an end in the last few decades, with nostalgia. The Floor Ownership Law of 1965 (Kat Mülkiyeti Kanunu), allowing and encouraging arrangements between house or land proprietors and building contractors in which each would share the benefits in rent of 8-floor apartment blocks built in the place of the former single house, proved especially disastrous for the urban landscape.
Modern İzmir grows in several directions at the same time. The north-western corridor extending until Aliağa brings together both mass housing projects, including villa-type projects and intensive industrial areaa, including an oil refinery. The southern corridor towards Gaziemir is where yet another important growth trend is observed, contributed by the Aegean Free Zone, light industry, the airport and mass housing projects. The presence of Tahtalı Dam built to provide potable water and its protected zone did not check the urban spread here, which has offshoots in cooperatives outside the metropolitan area as far south as the Ayrancılar – Torbalı axis. To the east and the north-east, urban development ends near the natural barriers constituted respectively by Belkahve (Mount Nif) and Sabuncubeli (Mount Yamanlar-Mount Sipylus) Passes. But the settlements above Bornova, inside the metropolitan zone, and around Kemalpaşa and Ulucak, outside the metropolitan zone, sees mass housing and secondary residences developing. More recently, the metropolitan area displays a growth process especially along the western corridor, encouraged by Çeşme motorway and extending to districts outside İzmir city proper such as Seferihisar and Urla.
The population of the city is predominantly Muslim, but secularism is very strong in this region of Turkey. İzmir is also home to Turkey's second largest Jewish community after Istanbul, still 2,500 strong. The community is still concentrated in their traditional quarter of Karataş. Smyrniot Jews like Sabbatai Zevi and Darío Moreno were among the famous figures of the city's Jewish community.
The Levantines of İzmir, who are mostly of Genoese and to a lesser degree of French and Venetian descent, live mainly in the districts of Bornova and Buca. One of the most prominent present-day figures of the community is Caroline Giraud Koç, wife of the renowned Turkish industrialist Mustafa Koç. Koç Holding is one of the largest family-owned industrial conglomerates in the world.
Read more about this topic: Izmir