The population in the occupied north of Cyprus has reached 351,000, according to Turkish Cypriot media reports.
The 1983 population of the north; the year the ‘TRNC’ was declared a ‘state’, was said to be 155,521.
Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen reported that Odul Muhtaroglu, ‘permanent secretary of the state planning organisation’ said that for the end of 2017 “we predict a population of approximately 351,000”.
Cyprus-Mail reports that the last census done in the north under the auspices of the UN in 2011 found the population to be 294,906 though the results were disputed by some political parties, unions and media which accused the ‘government’ of deliberately undercounting the population.
The north’s first ‘official’ census was carried out in 1996 recording a population of 200,587.
The second in 2006 put the population at 265,100, with 178,000 Turkish Cypriot ‘citizens’ of which 80 per cent were indigenous. The figure for non-citizens, including students, guest workers and temporary residents stood at 78,000.
Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı and President Nicos Anastasiades had reached an agreement at the end of 2015 that distribution of population numbers following a solution would be 220,000 under Turkish Cypriots administration and 800,0000 under Greek Cypriot administration.
Also on Monday, demographic figures released in the government-controlled areas showed the population to be at 854,800 at the end of 2016 compared with 848,300 the previous year, an increase of 0.8 per cent.
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