North population estimate reaches 825,000

The population in the north could be as high as 825,000, the ‘mayor’ of Kyrenia Murat Senkul was reported as saying on Tuesday, basing his calculations on domestic waste production.

Turkish Cypriot daily Diyalog cited Senkul as reacting to recent comments by Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, who said that the north’s population had dropped from 410,000 to 407,000.

Countering, Senkul opined that the actual population size could be twice that.

He cited the waste generated by the population. In Kyrenia itself, some 160 to 170 tonnes of waste are generated daily – giving an estimated population of 155,000.

In the whole of the north, he added, between 800 and 900 tonnes of waste are generated every day.

“If we take the whole of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ and consider that the average daily waste comes to 850 tonnes and divide this by 1.03kg, we can easily predict that the number of people living here are about 825,000,” said Senkul.

Back in November 2023, Senkul had likewise calculated the population of Kyrenia at 150,000. At the time he was commenting on the number of students who study in the northern part of Nicosia but who actually live in Kyrenia.