Turkey has an emerging market economy, as defined by the International Monetary Fund. The country is a founding member of the OECD (1961) and the G-20 major economies (1999). Since 1995, Turkey is a party to the European Union–Turkey Customs Union. Turkey is often classified as a newly industrialized country by economists and political scientists; while Merrill Lynch, the World Bank, the IMF and The Economist magazine describe Turkey as an emerging market economy. The World Bank classifies Turkey as an upper-middle income country in terms of the country's per capita GDP. The CIA World Factbook adds Turkey to its list of developed countries (DCs) due to the country's status as a founding member of the OECD. With a population of 84.6 million as of 2021, Turkey is among the world's leading pr