Istanbul historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople (see the names of Istanbul for further information) is the largest city of Turkey. According to the address-based birth recording system of the Turkish Statistical Institute the metropolitan municipality (province) of the city had a population of 13.26 million as of 2010 which is 17.98% of Turkey's population and the largest in Europe before Moscow. The last census data from 2000 puts its proper population at 8.8 million.
