Population: Province of Rize, which has 12 towns, 18 municipalities and 351 villages, has a population of 331,048 and 221,040 of total population (66.8%) inhabits in city centers, while 110,008 (%33.2) live in rural areas. Population growth rate is recorded as 6.3 ‰ for 2016 (country average is 13.6 ‰). 2016 net migration rate is -1.8 %. Population of the city center is 114,838. The land area of the city comprises 3,922 square kilometers and population density is 84 inhabitants per km² while the average population density of Turkey is 101. The proportion of young population entering into working-age (15-24 age range) is 15.82 %. Population in working-age (15-64 age range) represents 69% of total population.

Labor Force: According to 2013 year data, Rize has 51.6% labor force participation rate (Turkey’s average is 50.8%). Employment rate of Rize is 48.1% (TR average 45.9%). Unemployment rate is 6.7%. According to 2016 data, there are 30,717 employed, consisting of 13,897 men and 16,820 women, registered to İŞKUR (Turkish Employment Agency). Employment in city by sector is 64.3% agriculture, 9.4% industry, 26.3% services.

Health: Rize has 4 public hospitals, 1 training and research hospital, 4 district hospitals, 1 private hospital, 1 private medical center. Total bed capacity within these health facilities 1,018 (2013). 587 doctors are serving in Rize where there is one doctor for each 560 inhabitants (TR average 557).

Education: Literacy rate is 95.8% in general, comprising 98.8% literacy rate among men, and 92.7% among women. The number of people, who has college or faculty degree or higher, is 39,065. Schooling ratio is above the TR average and the number of students per classroom is 17 for primary and secondary schools whereas it is 21 for general high school while countrywide average is 25 and 31 respectively. Total number of education institutions of pre-primary, primary education, upper secondary education, vocational and technical education is 377. Total number of students is 66,182. In addition, there are 13 Public Education Centre in the province. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University has 42 academic units constituted by 3 institutes, 13 faculties, 5 colleges, 7 vocational schools, 14 centers for practice and research. It has 391 academician and 942 academic staff, and it has totally 19,478 students.

Social and Cultural Life: In TR90 region there are 28 theatre halls (in Turkey total number of theatres is 606). 5 of them are in Rize. In 2012, 23 plays were put on stage and 39 other shows were performed, and a total of 15,400 spectators attended these events. There are three cinemas in which 9 halls are used for screening the movies. Number of films in vision has reached to 152 and the ticket sold to 108,000. In addition, there are three museums in Rize, Ethnographic Museum, Atatürk’s House Museum and Çaykur Tea Museum. On the other hand, total number of public libraries in Rize and its districts is 16, which include 181,002 books.

Underground Resources: While Rize has high potential for copper-lead-zinc, feldspar, kaolinite, manganese and geothermal resources, it has, albeit low, also potential of marble and iron. Rize’s metal ore export, USD 102 million, constitutes more than 11.3 percent in 910 million USD metal ore export of Turkey in 2016. Within its border, province has 1,283,325 tons of zinc, 908,107 tons of copper, 10 tons of gold and 265 tons of silver mixed deposits. Çayeli- Madenköy copper-lead-zinc area which is operated by Çayeli Copper Co. Inc. is estimated to exhaust by 2021.

Agriculture and Livestock: Agricultural area in Rize is 54,589 ha. More than 91% of its agricultural area is used for tea production. Agricultural activities are limited because of the inadequacy of agricultural lands. Agricultural production of city reaching 2.39 billion TL in 2016 constitutes 2% of Turkey overall.

The size of animal husbandry activities is not developed, so total value of live animals and animal products in Rize constitutes just 0.4% of Turkey’s corresponding values. Animal products has increased in 2016 due to growth in number of live animals. Besides, honey production operated with 97,467 hives raised to 1,046 tons in 2016.

Eastern Black Sea Region provides around 62% of Turley’s sea products... Rize has the biggest production on sea products after Ordu, Trabzon and İstanbul.

Foreign Trade: In 2016 Rize made USD 160.6 million of total export. With this amount Rize ranks 9^th among 18 Black Sea Region provinces and 43^th among all provinces of Turkey. On the other hand, total import of the province is USD 19.9 million. Rize’s export in mining of metal ores comprises 64% of overall exports of the province and 11.3% of Turkey metal ore export.

A very large part of exports in the province of Rize is carried out by a Canadian company named as First Quantum Mining Co. that owns Çayeli Copper Operations. In addition, although the province’s economy is largely dependent on tea, its contribution to the exports is hardly any, and almost all of tea production is consumed through the domestic market.

Logistics: Transportation in Rize is carried out by road and maritime transport. Trabzon Airport is near to Rize, which is located 75 km away. In addition, Rize-Artvin airport which estimated to be completed by 2020 will improve the transportation infrastructure of the city. After completion of Rize Organized Industrial Zone and Ovit Tunnel, importance of Rize in terms of logistics will increase. With completion of the tunnel, transportation between Black Sea Area and southern regions of Turkey will be easier and faster. Project is planned to be finished by 2018. The tunnel will be the longest in Turkey and third longest in the world. Rize port with its hub location in transits has 170,000 m² hinterland and 11,000 m² indoor space.

Investment: In 2016, public investments with an amount of 314.6 million TL has been addressed to Rize (last year it was 191.8 million TL). Top three sectors by public investment are manufacturing (106.1 million TL), schooling/education (72.6 million TL) and transportation (50.2 million TL).

According to the of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, there are 249 firms with capacity report in the province. The economic activity of 124 firms is processing of tea, which constitutes nearly half of the total number of firms.

Tourism: In 2016, 678,873 tourists visited Rize where 76,059 of them were foreign visitors. There are one 5 stars, six 3 stars, three 2 stars hotels along with 58 bungalow houses and small pensions, most of which are located in Çamlıhemşin district. Total capacity of those facilities consists of 1,933 rooms with 4,011 beds. In addition, there are 11 hotels with investment certificates taken from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. After the completion of these investments, total accommodation capacity will grow by 747 rooms and 1,503 beds.

There are two Cultural and Tourism Preservation and Development Regions in Rize; Ayder and Anzer. According to the new investment incentive systems, although Rize is in 4^th investment incentive region, tourism investments on these regions benefit from 5^th region’s incentives.

Industry: According to the data sourced by Provincial Directorate of Science Industry and Technology, 75 percent of the registered industrial businesses composed by tea factories owned by ÇAYKUR and private businesses. 13,681 of 15,000 industrial personnel are employed in tea industry. The number of enterprises registered in the industry in Rize is 347. As the infrastructure of Rize Organized Industrial Zone is completed, companies started the facility investments which will produce 1,200 new job opportunity.

In central Rize and its districts, there are 6 Small Industrial Estates, 4 of which are operating actively. Two of them have not been operated yet. Active small industrial estates contain 523 workplaces.

Banking: There are 12 banks operating with 50 branches in Rize. Number of people per branch is 6,620. Total deposits are 2.2 billion TL while the total loans are 4.0 billion TL. Deposit per branch is 45.0 million TL, and loan per branch is 80.0 million TL. Loan/deposit ratio is 180 while it is 116 for the average of Turkey.

İskender Cafer Paşa Mosque

Kale Mosque

Müftü Mahallesi Mosque

Orta Mosque