Between 7 and 9 million people of Turkish descent live in the European Union, more than the population of 13 EU Member States.
40% confidence
MigrationEuropean Union
Omissions
The only source found with a figure for people of 'Turkish descent' (the FEPS/Center for American Progress report) refers to Europe as a whole, not specifically the European Union, and gives a lower bound ('more than 5 million') rather than a 7-9 million range.
Eurostat does not publish data on ethnic descent or ancestry; it records only citizenship and country of birth. Its figures for Turkish citizens in the EU (around 1.9-2.3 million) are far lower than the claimed 7-9 million, but they measure a different indicator (citizenship, not descent).
Estimates of the Turkish-origin population vary widely depending on the definition used (Turkish citizens vs. persons with Turkish migration background vs. ethnic Turks such as the Bulgarian Turkish minority), which makes any single figure contestable.
The second part of the claim ('more than the population of 13 EU Member States') depends on the Turkish-descent figure being at least ~6.5 million: 13 member states (Malta, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Croatia, Ireland, Slovakia, Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria) had populations below roughly 6.5 million in 2024-2025; if the real Turkish-origin population is around 5-6 million, the comparison would hold for fewer states.
No source published before the session date of 2026-10-08 explicitly stating a figure of 7-9 million people of Turkish descent in the EU was located within the search limit.
SecondaryPrague Process — Türkiye (citing UN DESA 2024)According to UN DESA 2024, Germany hosts the largest Turkish community (1,504,743), followed by France (260,167), the Netherlands (217,388), ...