ABSTRACT
In this study, which aims at explaining the variation in per capita income and population growth of cities in Turkey for the years 2007 and 2014, the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) was conducted by basing on various social and economic factors. According to the results increase in real GDP and number of students per teacher in primary school had significant and positive effect on population growth in Turkey for both years; while share of municipal population served with waste service caused population growth in 2007, it lost its effect in 2014. When the factors affecting income per capita were analysed, the number of students per teacher in primary schools was observed to affect income per capita positively in 2007 whereas number of students per teacher in secondary education had a negative effect and this effect varied locally. Population aged between 15 and 64 affected income per capita negatively in both years as expected. Total number of physicians per hundred thousand people positively affected income in both years. The results show that the similarities that could occur due to externalities between cities or common effects between neighbouring cities support the argument of using proper policies on the basis of similarity effects among cities.
