REGIONS

Province of Rize, which has 12 towns, 18 municipalities and 350 villages, has a population of 350,506 and 221,458 of total population (63.18%) inhabits in city centers, while 129,048 (%36.82) live in rural areas. Population growth rate is recorded as 18.87 ‰ for 2023 (country average is 1.09 ‰). 2023 net migration rate is 17.19 ‰. Population of the city center is 147,996. The land area of the city comprises 3,922 square kilometers and population density is 89 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 13.36%. Population in working-age (15-64 age range) represents 68.40% of total population.

According to 2023 year data, TR90 has 56.5% labor force participation rate (Türkiye’s average is 53.3%). Employment rate is 48.3% (TR average 51.7%). Unemployment rate is 8.4%. According to 2023 data, there are 15,257 unemployed, consisting of 7,372 men and 7,885 women, registered to İŞKUR (Turkish Employment Agency). According to SGK data, in 2023 there are 92,651 insured people. Only 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. 780 doctors are serving in Rize where there is one doctor for each 441 inhabitants.

Literacy rate is 97.1% in general, comprising 99.18% literacy rate among men, and 95,02% among women. The number of people, who has college or faculty degree or higher, is 59,184. Schooling ratio is above the TR average. The number of students per teacher 15 and 12 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 344. Total number of students is 66,577. 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 6440 academician and 615 academic staff, and totally 18,219 students.

In Rize during 2011-2023, 265 plays of state theaters had been put on stage 532 times, and 174,868 spectators attended these events. Total number of public libraries in Rize and its districts is 16, which include 219.243 books. Number of users is 85,662 and 34,087 books had been lent. In addition, there are four museums in Rize, Ethnographic Museum, Atatürk's House Museum, Çayeli Natural Life Museum and Çaykur Tea Museum.

Rize has potential for copper, iron, granite, manganese and geothermal resources. Rize constitutes 4.3 percent in metal ore export of Türkiye in 2023.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 55,712.4 ha. 95.3% 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 2023, Rize made USD 201.4 million of total export. With this amount Rize ranks 9th among 18 Black Sea Region provinces and 47th among all provinces of Türkiye. On the other hand, total import of the province is USD 10.7 million. Rize’s export in mining of metal ores comprises 41.33% of overall exports of the province and 4.3% 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 2023, 1,341,996 tourists visited Rize where 145,942 of them were foreign visitors. There are three 5 stars, one 4 stars, eleven 3 stars, four 2 stars hotels and two 1 star hotels along with bungalow houses and small pensions most of which are located in Çamlıhemşin district. There are 1,503 rooms and 3,052 beds in 91 facilities with simple accommodation certificates throughout the province. In total, it is seen that the accommodation facility capacity of Rize consists of 122 facilities, 2,920 rooms and 5,986 beds. In addition, there are 13 hotels with investment certificates taken from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. After the completion of these investments, total accommodation capacity will grow by 484 rooms and 1,083 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. 11,590 of 16,082 industrial personnel are employed in tea industry. The number of enterprises registered in the industry in Rize is 470. 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 735 active workplaces.

There are 11 banks operating with 43 branches in Rize. Number of people per branch is 8,151. Total deposits are 21.13 billion TL while the total loans are 24.98 billion TL. Deposit per branch is 491 million TL, and loan per branch is 581 million TL. In 2023, loan/deposit ratio is 118.2% while it is 75.5% for the average of Türkiye.