Kurdish people

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Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, romanized: Kurd) or Kurdish people are an Indo-European^[1][2][3] ethnic group indigenous to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq and northern Syria.^[4][5]

There are exclaves of Kurds in Central Anatolia, Khorasan, and the Caucasus, as well as significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, particularly Istanbul, and Western Europe, primarily in Germany. In 2017 The Kurdish population was estimated to be between 36.5-45 million.^[6]

Kurds
Kurd کورد

Flag of Kurdistan
Total population
36.5–45 million[7] (Kurdish Institute of Paris, 2017 estimate.)
Turkey	est. 15-20 million[7]
Iran	est. 12 - 12 million[7]
Iraq	est. 8–8.5 million[7]
Syria	3–3.6[8][9]
Germany	1.5–2.5 million[10][11]
Turkmenistan	50,000[12]
Azerbaijan	180,000 - 4 million (inc. Ancestrial)[12]
France	150,000 - 300,000[13]
Netherlands	100,000 - 210,000[14]
Sweden	83,600 - 115,600[15]
Russia	63,818 - 130,000[16]
Belgium	50,000[17]
United Kingdom	49,841 - 186,000[18][19][20]
Kazakhstan	46,348[21]
Switzerland	51,000[22]
Denmark	30,000[23]
Jordan	30,000[24]
Austria	110,000[25]
Greece	61,000[26]
United States	20,591[27]
Canada	16,315[28]
Finland	15,368[29]
Georgia	13,861[30]
Kyrgyzstan	13,200[31]
Australia	10,551[32]
Armenia	37,470 - 900,000 (inc. Ancestrial)[33]
Languages
Kurdish In their different varieties: Sorani, Kurmanji, Pehlewani, Laki[34] Zaza, Gorani[35]
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam with minorities of Shia Islam and Alevism
Related ethnic groups
Other Iranian people

1. ↑ Bois, Th; Minorsky, V.; MacKenzie, D. N., "Kurds, Kurdistān", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Brill, p. 439, "The Kurds, an Iranian people of the Near East (...)"
2. ↑ E. J. van Donzel (1994). Islamic desk reference. BRILL. p. 222, "(...) the Kurds are an Iranian people who live mainly at the junction of more or less laicised Turkey, Shi'i Iran, Arab Sunni Iraq and North Syria and the former Soviet Transcaucasia."
3. ↑ Biggs, Robert D. (1983). Discoveries from Kurdish Looms. Mary and Leigh Block Gallery. Northwestern University. ISBN 978-0-941680-02-8. p. 9, "Ethnically the Kurds are an Iranian people (...)"
4. ↑
   • Kreyenbroek, Philip G.; Sperl, Stefan (1992). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. Routledge. ISBN 9781138869745. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
   • Natali, Denise (2005). The Kurds and the state: Evolving national identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. ISBN 9780815630845. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
   • Yeğen, Mesut (23 November 2006). "Turkish nationalism and the Kurdish question". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 30 (1): 119–151. doi:10.1080/01419870601006603. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
   • Kaya, Zeynep (2012). "Maps into nations: Kurdistan, Kurdish Nationalism and international society". The London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
   • McDowall, David (22 April 2021). A Modern History of the Kurds (1 ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780755600793. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
   • "Timeline: The Kurds' Long Struggle With Statelessness". Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Retrieved 9 December 2024.
5. ↑
   • van Bruinessen, Martin (4 October 1991). Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan (1 ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781856490191. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
   • Meho, Lokman I. "The Kurds and Kurdistan: a general background" (PDF). International Journal of Kurdish Studies. 11. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
   • Dahlman, Carl (2002). "The Political Geography of Kurdistan". Eurasian Geography and Economics. 43 (4): 271–299. doi:10.2747/1538-7216.43.4.271. Retrieved 10 December 2024. Published online: 10 May 2013
   • M. T. O'Shea, Trapped between the map and reality: geography and perceptions of Kurdistan, 258 pp., Routledge, 2004. (see p. 77)
   • Kirmanj, Sherko (2013). "Kurdistan Region: A Country Proile" (PDF). Journal of International Studies. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
   • Galip, Özlem Belçim (24 April 2015). Imagining Kurdistan: Identity, Culture and Society (1 ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780857738240. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
6. ↑ "The Kurdish population". Institutkurde.org (in French). Retrieved 11 December 2024.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3} The Kurdish Population In 2017 the Kurdish population was estimated at 15–20 million in Turkey, 10–12 million in Iran, 8–8.5 million in Iraq, 1–3,6 million in Syria, 1.2–1.5 million in the European diaspora, and 0.4–0.5in the former USSR—for a total of 36.5 million to 45 million globally.
8. ↑ "Syria - Kurds". World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. "There are around two-and-a-half million Kurds in Syria. They speak Kurdish (the Kirimanji dialect), but most speak Arabic, too, and many Kurds have at least partially assimilated into Arab society. Most are Sunni Muslims."
9. ↑ "Kurdish population". Kurdish Institute of Paris. "In Syria, the civil war completely disrupted the demographic balance in the three Kurdish cantons (Djezirah, Kobane and Afrin) with an estimated population of 2.5 million. Added to this are the Kurdish communities of Aleppo and Damascus with more than one million people. In all, the Syrian Kurdish population can be estimated at 3 to 3.5 million, or nearly 15% of the population of Syria."
10. ↑ ""Wir Kurden ärgern uns über die Bundesregierung" - Politik". Süddeutsche.de. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
11. ↑ "Geschenk an Erdogan? Kurdisches Kulturfestival verboten". heise.de. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Ismet Chériff Vanly, “The Kurds in the Soviet Union”, in: Philip G. Kreyenbroek & S. Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992). pg 164: Table based on 1990 estimates: Azerbaijan (180,000), Armenia (50,000), Georgia (40,000), Kazakhistan (30,000), Kyrghizistan (20,000), Uzbekistan (10,000), Tajikistan (3,000), Turkmenistan (50,000), Siberia (35,000), Krasnodar (20,000), Other (12,000), Total 450,000
13. ↑ "3 Kurdish women political activists shot dead in Paris". CNN. 11 January 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
14. ↑ "Diaspora Kurde". Institutkurde.org (in French). Retrieved 2 November 2019.
15. ↑ "Sweden". Ethnologue. 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
16. ↑ "Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 г. Национальный состав населения Российской Федерации". Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 21 May 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
17. ↑ "The Kurdish Diaspora". Institut Kurde de Paris. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
18. ↑ "QS211EW - Ethnic group (detailed)". nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
19. ↑ "Ethnic Group - Full Detail_QS201NI" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2013.
20. ↑ "Scotland's Census 2011 - National Records of Scotland - Ethnic group (detailed)" (PDF). Scotland Census. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 May 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
21. ↑ "Численность населения Республики Казахстан по отдельным этносам на начало 2019 года". Archived from the original on 17 March 2022. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
22. ↑ "Switzerland". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
23. ↑ "Fakta: Kurdere i Danmark". Jyllandsposten (in Danish). 8 May 2006. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
24. ↑ Al-Khatib, Mahmoud A.; Al-Ali, Mohammed N. "Language and Cultural Shift Among the Kurds of Jordan" (PDF). p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
25. ↑ "Austria". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
26. ↑ "Greece". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
27. ↑ "2011-2015 American Community Survey Selected Population Tables". Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
28. ↑ "Ethnic Origin (279), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3), Generation Status (4), Age (12) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2016 Census". 25 October 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
29. ↑ "Language according to age and sex by region 1990 - 2020". Statistics Finland. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
30. ↑ PDF. "Population/Census" (PDF). geostat.ge. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
31. ↑ "Number of resident population by selected nationality" (PDF). United Nations. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
32. ↑ "Australia - Ancestry". 2016. Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
33. ↑ "Information from the 2011 Armenian National Census" (PDF). Statistics of Armenia (in Armenian). Retrieved 27 May 2014.
34. ↑ "Atlas of the Languages of Iran A working classification". Languages of Iran. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
35. ↑ Michiel Leezenberg (1993). "Gorani Influence on Central Kurdish: Substratum or Prestige Borrowing?" (PDF). ILLC - Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam: 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 July 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.