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Türkiye recorded a 4.4% rise in the number of museums nationwide in 2025 compared with the previous year, bringing the total to 664, while visits to museums and archaeological sites climbed 6.8% to reach 65.86 million.
The figures come from the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TurkStat) "Cultural Heritage Statistics" report for 2025.
Of the 664 museums, 220 operate under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 426 are classified as private museums, and 18 are run by the Directorate General of National Palaces. The number of archaeological sites reached 148.
The number of artifacts held in museums rose 0.4% to 4.01 million. Ministry-affiliated museums accounted for most of that growth, with their artifact count rising 0.5% to 3.39 million, while private museums saw a 0.4% increase to 292,271 artifacts. Artifacts in museums under the Directorate General of National Palaces fell 0.5% to 331,561.
Coins made up 60.4% of the artifacts in ministry-affiliated museums, followed by archaeological materials at 27.8%, ethnographic materials at 6.7%, and tablets at 3.5%.
Ministry-affiliated museums and archaeological sites drew 52.9% of all visitors, with those charging admission alone accounting for 20,888,733 visits, or 31.7% of the total.
Private museums posted the strongest growth, with visitor numbers rising 10.8% to 21.91 million.
Museums under the Directorate General of National Palaces saw the opposite trend, with visits falling 8.8% to 9.12 million. The ministry sold 6.8 million museum cards over the year.
Istanbul drew more museum visitors than any other province, with 18.31 million, followed by Izmir with 4.65 million and Ankara with 4.64 million.
Istanbul also had the highest concentration of immovable cultural assets, whose national total grew 2.6% to 130,632. It was followed by Izmir with 8,120 such assets and Mugla with 5,332.
The total number of protected sites rose 6% to 27,703, with archaeological sites making up 97.1% of that figure.
National parks grew 2% in number to 50, covering an area that expanded 3.2% to 942,286 hectares.
Nature parks increased 2.2% to 274, with their combined area growing 0.2% to 94,294 hectares.
The number of nature conservation areas held steady at 32, as did the number of natural monuments, at 111.
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