The last population census in the TRNC took place in 2011 and according to which, the population of the TRNC was 286,257 people.
Columnist Dervis Dogan writing for Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Star Kibris,’ quotes statements made by the undersecretary of the State Planning Organisation during that period, Ali Korhan, who announced that in the second stage of the population census in 2011, the number of the Turkish Cypriots born in the country (both in the TRNC and south Cyprus) was 160,017 people.
Also, according to the columnist, the number of the Turkish settlers who have permanent residence in the TRNC was 104,641 persons.
The columnist adds that six years have passed since then, with many births, deaths, people who have left the country and people who have arrived and nobody can answer the question about the real number of the population today.
Dogan continues that anyone who goes out into the streets will realise that there is not enough infrastructure, not enough classes in the schools, not enough roads, that there needs to be more hospitals and also that the police force needs to be expanded.
The columnist says that the reason for all these requirements is the remarkable increase in the population:
“All these show of course that the real number of the population is unknown. As a matter of fact, Prime Minister Huseyin Ozgurgun stated the other day at the Assembly, that the police force should be increased, since the current number of policemen is not enough if compared with the population numbers. Is this correct? Yes it is correct and this is because nobody can make such an evaluation without knowing the number of the population.
It is for this reason that we constantly are asking about the population in the north, because, the police force is not enough, the schools are not enough for the students, the hospitals are full and the infrastructure and the roads are also not enough!”, writes the columnist.
Star Kibris