Istanbul

People

During the 1990s, Istanbul grew at a rate of about 3.8 percent annually. Most of the migrants came from the countryside, moving into shantytowns known as gecekondus (literally "set down by night"). About 99 percent of Istanbul residents are Muslim Turks, two-thirds of them Sunni. The rest are Alevi, a sect similar to Shiism. Christian and Jewish minorities continue to shrink in numbers. The dominant language is Turkish although some minorities do speak other languages.