Kirkuk Governorate or Kirkuk Province is a governorate in northern Iraq. The governorate has an area of . In 2024, the population was 2,034,627 people. The provincial capital is the city of Kirkuk. It is divided into four districts.

The province was named Kirkuk Governorate until 1976, when it was named At-Ta'mim Governorate, meaning "nationalization", referring to the national ownership of the regional oil and natural gas reserves. While Article 140 of the 2005 Constitution mandated the restoration of the name "Kirkuk Governorate" by 2007, the administrative transition was delayed by political disputes. The name was not fully reinstated across all federal records and identity documents until 2017.

Governorate government

thumb|Districts of Kirkuk Governorate

  • Governor: Mohammed Samaan Agha (Iraqi Turkmen Front)

Districts

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! District

! Total population, 2024

|-

| Kirkuk

| align="right" |1,549,454

|-

| Dibis

| align="right" |78,101

|-

| Daquq

| align="right" |85,773

|-

| Hawija

| align="right" |321,299

|}

Demographics

Kirkuk Governorate borders were altered in 1976; when 4 districts were added to the Sulaymaniya, Diyala and Saladin Governorates. The Kirkuk Governorate received the Arab populated Zab District from the Mosul Governorate.

With the Arabization policies of the Ba'ath party, the number of Arabs in official censuses increased fivefold within 40 years, however the most reliable data indicative of the ethnic breakdown of the governorate are those of the 1957 census. The number of Kurds remained relatively constant from 1957 until 1977, decrease in their numbers coincides with the Arabization process in the 1990s. The Turkmens were seriously affected by the Ba'ath changing Kirkuk borders their percentage fell from 21% to 7%.

Starting from 1977, 2,000 Christians (Assyrians) were registered as Arabs. From the end of the Gulf War to 1999, about 11,000 Kurdish families were deported from Kirkuk. Since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, 100,000 Kurds have returned to the city of Kirkuk.

Statistics

Ethnic data from a League of Nations report from 1925 and British data from 1924, 1930 and 1931 (the province had different borders during these years):

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|- bgcolor="#DDDDDD"

| colspan="9" align="center" | Ethnic data for Kirkuk Governorate (liwa)

|- bgcolor="#f0f0f0" align="center"

! Ethnicity

! 1924

!%

! 1925

! %

!1930

! %

!1931 || 53%||187,593 || 48% || 184,875 || 38% || 155,861 || 21%

|-

| Turkish || || || 83,371 || 21% || 80,347 || 17% || 50,099 || 7%

|-

| Syriac|| || || 1,605 || 0.4% || N/A || N/A || N/A || N/A

|-

| Hebrew || 4,042 || || 123 || 0.003% || N/A || N/A || N/A || N/A

|-

| Other || || || 6,545 || 1.77% || N/A || N/A || N/A || N/A

|-

| Total ||285,900 consequently, this skewed the number of other ethnic minorities, such as Iraq's third largest ethnic group – the Turkmen.

!Percentage

!Seats

|-

| style="background:#32cd32;"|

|Patriotic Union of Kurdistan ||183,283|| ||6

|-

| style="background:#fff;"|

|Arab Alliance of Kirkuk ||84,102|| ||3

|-

| style="background:#00CCFF;"|

|Turkman Front of Kirkuk ||79,694|| ||3

|-

| style="background:#005bf9;"|

|Victory Coalition ||24,328|| ||0

|-

| style="background:olive;"|

|Conquest Alliance ||18,427|| ||0

|-

| style="background:#b5ca7f;"|

|National Coalition ||14,979|| ||0

|-

|bgcolor="#"|

|Nishtiman coalition<br /><sub>Movement for Change<br />Coalition for Democracy and Justice<br />Kurdistan Islamic Group</sub> ||14,118|| ||0

|-

| style="background:#ff4500;"|

|New Generation Movement ||13,096|| ||0

|-

| style="background:#ffffff;"|

|Chaldean Coalition<br />Reserved Christian Seat ||4,864|| || 1

|-

| style="background:#654321;"|

|Kurdistan Islamic Group ||4,631|| ||0

|-

| style="background:#ffffff;"|

|Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council ||3,810|| || 0

|-

| style="background:#ffffff;"|

|Others ||39,286|| || 0

|-

!colspan=2|Total||484,618||100%||12(+1)

|}

Archeological sites

Archeological sites in the governorate include Arrapḫa, Nuzi and Lubdu, which all date back several thousand years. Arrapha is located within the modern city of Kirkuk, Nuzi is identified with the site of Yorghan Tepe and the location of Lubdu isn't certain, but considered to be at Tall Buldagh.

See also

  • 2009 Kirkuk governorate election
  • Arabization
  • Kurdification
  • Article 140 of the Constitution of Iraq

Notes

References

  • Iraq Inter-Agency Information & Analysis Unit Reports, Maps and Assessments of Iraq's Governorates from the UN Inter-Agency Information & Analysis Unit