REGIONS

Province of Rize, which has 12 towns, 18 municipalities and 350 villages, has a population of 344,016 and 234,538 of total population (68.18%) inhabits in city centers, while 109,478 (%31.82) live in rural areas. Population growth rate is recorded as -4.76 ‰ for 2022 (country average is 7.08 ‰). 2022 net migration rate is -6.44 ‰. Population of the city center is 152,056. The land area of the city comprises 3,922 square kilometers and population density is 88 inhabitants per km² while the average population density of Türkiye is 111. The proportion of young population entering into working-age (15-24 age range) is 13.79%. Population in working-age (15-64 age range) represents 68.41% of total population..

According to 2022 year data, TR90 has 55.4% labor force participation rate (Türkiye’s average is 53.1%). Employment rate is 47.5% (TR average 50.3%). Unemployment rate is 10.4%. According to 2022 data, there are 23,623 unemployed, consisting of 12,891 men and 10,732 women, registered to İŞKUR (Turkish Employment Agency). According to SGK data, in 2023 there are 94,867 insured people. Only 13.12% of them are agricultural insured or small business owners. Although people work in different jobs, most of the local people in Rize are engaged in tea farming.

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 1,110. 770 doctors are serving in Rize where there is one doctor for each 449 inhabitants.

Literacy rate is 96.7% in general, comprising 98.3% literacy rate among men, and 94.9% among women. The number of people, who has college or faculty degree or higher, is 58,335. Schooling ratio is above the TR average. The number of students per teacher 14 and 11 for primary and secondary schools whereas it is 19 for general high school. Total number of education institutions of pre-primary, primary education, upper secondary education, vocational and technical education is 334. Total number of students is 65,396. In addition, there are 13 Public Education Centre in the province. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University has 43 academic units constituted by 1 institute, 15 faculties, 3 colleges, 6 vocational schools, 18 centers for practice and research. It has 610 academician and 662 academic staff, and totally 17,652 students..

In Rize during 2011-2021, 228 plays of state theaters had been put on stage 468 times, and 149,852 spectators attended these events. Total number of public libraries in Rize and its districts is 16, which include 222,815 books. In 2021 number of users is 42,170 and 29,199 books had been lent. In addition, there are three museums in Rize, Ethnographic Museum, Atatürk's House Museum and Çaykur Tea Museum.

Rize has potential for copper, iron, granite, manganese and geothermal resources. Rize constitutes 4.8 percent in metal ore export of Türkiye in 2022.Çayeli- Madenköy copper-lead-zinc area which is operated by Çayeli Copper Co. Inc. is estimated to exhaust in a near future.

The municipalities in the province of Rize have a total of 9 wastewater treatment facilities, 8 physical and 1 biological. There is no advanced wastewater treatment facility in Rize. 100 thousand tons of solid waste is collected annually. All of the collected waste is disposed of in landfills.Considering the energy consumption statistics of the last 5 years in Rize province, it is seen that there is an increase in the consumption of residential, commercial and industrial sectors, and a decrease in the consumption of government offices and other sectors. In the period of 2017-2021, it is seen that there is an increase of 10% in energy consumption in industry, 15% in residences, 18% in businesses and 8% in total.

Agricultural area in Rize is 57,375.7 ha. 95.4% of its agricultural area is used for tea production. Agricultural activities are limited because of the inadequacy of agricultural lands. Agricultural production of city is 4.08 billion TL in 2021 and constitutes 1.3% of Türkiye overall.
The size of animal husbandry activities is not developed, so total value of live animals and animal products in Rize constitutes just 0.3% of Türkiye’s corresponding values.
Eastern Black Sea Region provides around 45% of Türkiye’s sea products. Rize has the biggest production on sea products after Ordu, Trabzon and İstanbul.

According to the Entrepreneur Information System data, in Rize, there are 9,392 enterprises in 2021 and the total turnover of these enterprises is 24.89 billion TL.
In Rize, 4.8 billion TL worth of retail trade (excluding motor vehicles and motorcycles), 3.63 billion TL worth of wholesale trade (excluding motor land vehicles and motorcycles), and 2.36 billion TL of repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles by wholesale and retail trade happened in 2021. Approximately 90% of the turnover in the manufacturing sector (7.29 billion TL) is at the level of manufacture of food products. The largest share in the manufacture of food products belongs to the coffee and tea-processing sector with a turnover of 6.41 billion TL. It is understood from this that the most important economic activity in Rize trade is the processing of coffee and tea.
According to Yer-Sis data, the five cities that Rize makes the most sales are respectively İstanbul, Ankara, Trabzon, İzmir and Artvin. The top five cities in Rize's purchases are respectively İstanbul, Ankara, Trabzon, Kocaeli and Samsun.

In 2022 Rize made USD 228.6 million of total export. With this amount Rize ranks 10th among 18 Black Sea Region provinces and 48th among all provinces of Türkiye. On the other hand, total import of the province is USD 86.2 million. Rize’s export in mining of metal ores comprises 44.42% of overall exports of the province and 4.8% of Türkiye 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.

Transportation in Rize is carried out by road and maritime transport. Currently, air transportation to Rize is provided from Rize-Artvin Airport, which was opened on 14 May 2022. Rize-Artvin airport improved the transportation infrastructure of the city. Completion of Rize Organized Industrial Zone and Ovit Tunnel, which is gate between Black Sea Area and southern regions of Türkiye making transportation easier and faster, increased importance of Rize in terms of logistics. Rize port with its hub location in transits has 170,000 m2 hinterland and 11,000 m2 indoor space.

In 2022, public investments with an amount of 6.19 billion TL has been addressed to Rize. Top three sectors by public investment are transportation (4.03 billion TL), agriculture (712.62 million TL) and housing (675.89 million TL).
According to the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye, there are 270 firms with capacity report in the province. The economic activity of 125 firms is processing of tea, which constitutes nearly half of the total number of firms.

In 2019, 1,024,010 tourists visited Rize where 134,173 of them were foreign visitors. However there has been a significant drop in the number of the tourists because of the covid-19 pandemic since 2020. In 2022, 1,267,487 tourists visited Rize where 134,928 of them were foreign visitors. There are three 5 stars, eight 3 stars, three 2 stars hotels and one 1 star hotels along with bungalow houses and small pensions most of which are located in Çamlıhemşin district. As of May 2023, there are 1,816 rooms and 3,686 beds in 94 facilities with simple accommodation certificates throughout the province. In total, it is seen that the accommodation facility capacity of Rize consists of 113 facilities, 2,854 rooms and 5,796 beds. In addition, there are 7 hotels with investment certificates taken from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. After the completion of these investments, total accommodation capacity will grow by 389 rooms and 842 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 3th investment incentive region, tourism investments on these regions benefit from 5th region’s incentives.

According to the data sourced by Provincial Directorate of Industry and Technology, significant amount of the registered industrial businesses composed by tea factories owned by ÇAYKUR and private businesses. 11,155 of 15,542 industrial personnel are employed in tea industry. The number of enterprises registered in the industry in Rize is 457. As the infrastructure of Rize Organized Industrial Zone is completed, companies started the facility investments which will produce 1,300 new job opportunity. In central Rize and its districts, there are 6 Small Industrial Estates which contain 854 active workplaces.

There are 11 banks operating with 44 branches in Rize. Number of people per branch is 7,819. Total deposits are 9.13 billion TL while the total loans are 11.21 billion TL. Deposit per branch is 203 million TL, and loan per branch is 249 million TL. In 2022, loan/deposit ratio is 122.8% while it is 81.8% for the average of Türkiye.