A Rank-Size Rule Analysis of The City System at The Country and Province Level in Turkey

Abstract

The present study investigates the rank-size distribution of cities above10,000 in Turkey for the years 2000 and 2012, and the results arecompared with the findings related to 1945 and 1975. A regressionanalysis is employed to reveal the relationships between the slopes ofcity size distribution and the characteristics of provinces. The resultsshow that despite the political and economic transformations of the lastdecade, there is a perfect adjustment of the city size distribution to therank-size rule at the country level due to existence of a well-establishedurban system. Furthermore, when the metropolitan areas began todecentralize, urbanization levels start to increase in their surroundingareas, as observed in this study.