Turkey were selected by the overwhelming majority of votes, 16-4, over Australia by FIBA's Central Board.

"We had two outstanding bids, with both countries doing an amazing job of giving the board very good reasons to believe they were very capable of hosting the event and having it be a great success," said FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann.

"The quality of the two bids is testament to the growth of women's basketball."

Last year's men's World Championships took place in four cities, Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Kayseri.

But the women's tournament will be based just in Istanbul.

The group stages of the tournament are to be played in the Darüşşafaka Ayhan Şahenk Sports Hall and the Fenerbahçe Ülker Arena, while the final match venue is yet to be decided.

It will probably, though, be played in the newly-built Sinan Erdem Dome, which hosted the men's final last year.

"A great majority of the FIBA Central Board supported us with the belief that we will put on a very successful organization just like we did in the 2010 FIBA Men's World Championship," said Turgay Demirel, the chairman of the Turkish Basketball Federation.

"We had a really difficult opponent in Australia, who was the world champion in 2006 and a three-time medalist, as well as hosting the Olympic Games in 2000 and the World Basketball Championship in 1994.

"We are happy to win our bid over such a strong candidate.

"During our presentations, we said our sports halls were ready for the tournament; we will do our utmost to increase spectators [in women's basketball] and our national team will represent our country very well.

"We hope that it will be an organization as successful as the 2010 event.

"During the candidacy, we presented Istanbul - our most organised city both strategically and logistically and the one where all the sports halls are ready."

The Australian side also presented a one-city bid in Melbourne.