"Kurd" redirects here. For other uses, see Kurd (disambiguation).
Kurds کورد Kurd
Flag of Kurdistan
Total population
30–40 million[1] (The World Factbook, 2015 estimate) 36.4–45.6 million[2] (Kurdish Institute of Paris, 2017 estimate)
Regions with significant populations
Turkey
est. 14.3–20 million[1][2]
Iran
est. 8.2–12 million[1][2]
Iraq
est. 5.6–8.5 million[1][2]
Syria
est. 2–3.6 million[1][2]
Germany
1.2–1.5 million[3][4]
Azerbaijan
150,000–180,000[5][6]
France
150,000[7]
Sweden
100,000+[8][9][10][11]
Netherlands
100,000[12]
Russia
63,818[13]
Belgium
50,000[14]
United Kingdom
49,841[15][16][17]
Kazakhstan
47,938[18]
Armenia
37,470[19]
Switzerland
35,000[20]
Denmark
30,000[21]
Jordan
30,000[22]
Austria
23,000[23]
Greece
22,000[24]
United States
20,591–40,000[25]
Canada
16,315[26]
Finland
15,850[27]
Georgia
13,861[28]
Kyrgyzstan
13,200[29]
Australia
10,171[30]
Languages
Kurdish In their different varieties: Sorani, Kurmanji, Pehlewani, Laki[31] Zazaki, Gorani[32]
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam with minorities of Shia Islam, Kurdish Alevism, Yazidism, Yarsanism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity[33][34][35]
Related ethnic groups
Other Iranic peoples
Part of a series on:
Kurdish history and Kurdish culture
People
List of Kurds
Population
Homeland
Kurdistan
Turkey (Northern Kurdistan)
Iran (Eastern Kurdistan)
Iraq (Southern Kurdistan)
Syria (Western Kurdistan)
Diaspora
Armenia
Australia
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Canada
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Iraq
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Lebanon
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Palestine
Pakistan
Romania
Russia
Syria
Sweden
Turkmenistan
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
History
Timeline of Kurdish uprisings
Ancient
Karduchian dynasties
Corduene
Zabdicene
Cyrtians
Moxoene
Kayusids
Medieval
Shahrizor
Sadakiyans
Mir Jafar Dasni
Aishanids
Daisam
Shaddadids
Rawadids
Hasanwayhids
Annazids
Marwanids
Hadhabani
Hazaraspids
Ayyubids
Zands
Badlis
Ardalan
Badinan
Soran
Mokryan
Baban
Modern
Kurdistansky Uyezd
Kurdish rebellions during World War I
Simko Shikak revolt
Koçgiri Rebellion
Ararat rebellion
Dersim Rebellion
Kingdom of Kurdistan
Kurdish Republic of Ararat
Republic of Mahabad
Al-Anfal campaign
Iraqi Kurdistan (Kurdistan Region)
Iranian Kurdistan
Turkish Kurdistan
Syrian Kurdistan
Culture
Kurdish culture
Clothing
Cuisine
Celebrations
Dance
Flag
Historical sites
Language
Folklore
Literature
Music
Kurdish philosophers
Languages
Kurdish languages
Kurmanji
Sorani
Xwarin
Zaza
Laki
Gorani
Religion
Islam
Spread
Christianity
Judaism
Shabakism
Yarsanism
Yazdânism
Yazidism
Zoroastrianism
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Kurdish people or Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, Kurd) are an Iranic[36][37][38] ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria.[39] 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 (in particular Istanbul) and Western Europe (primarily in Germany). The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.[2][40]
Kurds speak the Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, which belong to the Western Iranian branch of the Iranian languages.[41][42]
Kurds do not comprise a majority in any country, making them a stateless people.[43] After World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. However, that promise was broken three years later, when the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey and made no such provision, leaving Kurds with minority status in all of the new countries of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria.[44] Recent history of the Kurds includes numerous genocides and rebellions, along with ongoing armed conflicts in Turkish, Iranian, Syrian, and Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds in Iraq and Syria have autonomous regions, while Kurdish movements continue to pursue greater cultural rights, autonomy, and independence throughout Kurdistan[when defined as?].
^ abcdeThe World Factbook (Online ed.). Langley, Virginia: US Central Intelligence Agency. 2015. ISSN 1553-8133. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2015. A rough estimate in this edition gives populations of 14.3 million in Turkey, 8.2 million in Iran, about 5.6 to 7.4 million in Iraq, and less than 2 million in Syria, which adds up to approximately 28–30 million Kurds in Kurdistan or in adjacent regions. The CIA estimates are as of August 2015[update] – Turkey: Kurdish 18%, of 81.6 million; Iran: Kurd 10%, of 81.82 million; Iraq: Kurdish 15–20%, of 37.01 million, Syria: Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%, of 17.01 million.
^ abcdefThe Kurdish Population by the Kurdish Institute of Paris, 2017 estimate. The Kurdish population is estimated at 15–20 million in Turkey, 10–12 million in Iran, 8–8.5 million in Iraq, 3–3.6 million in Syria, 1.2–1.5 million in the European diaspora, and 400k–500k in the former USSR—for a total of 36.4 million to 45.6 million globally.
^""Wir Kurden ärgern uns über die Bundesregierung" – Politik". Süddeutsche.de. 21 March 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
^"Geschenk an Erdogan? Kurdisches Kulturfestival verboten". heise.de. 5 September 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
^The cultural situation of the Kurds, A report by Lord Russell-Johnston, Council of Europe, July 2006.
^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), Kazakhstan (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
^"3 Kurdish women political activists shot dead in Paris". CNN. 11 January 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
^"NATO Membership for Sweden: Between Turkey and the Kurds". The Washington Institute. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
^"Will exiled Kurds pay price of Sweden's NATO entry?". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
^"NATO bid reignites Sweden's dispute with Turkey over Kurds". POLITICO. 24 May 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
^TT (23 September 2017). "Svenskkurder: Självständighet kan inte vänta". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). ISSN 1101-2412. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
^"Diaspora Kurde". Institutkurde.org (in French). Retrieved 2 November 2019.
^"Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 г. Национальный состав населения Российской Федерации". Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 21 May 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
^"The Kurdish Diaspora". Institut Kurde de Paris. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
^"QS211EW – Ethnic group (detailed)". nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
^"Ethnic Group – Full Detail_QS201NI" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2013.
^"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.
^"Ethnic composition of Kazakhstan 2021". Retrieved 4 July 2022.
^"Information from the 2011 Armenian National Census" (PDF). Statistics of Armenia (in Armenian). Retrieved 27 May 2014.
^"Switzerland". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
^"Fakta: Kurdere i Danmark". Jyllandsposten (in Danish). 8 May 2006. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
^Al-Khatib, Mahmoud A.; Al-Ali, Mohammed N. "Language and Cultural Shift Among the Kurds of Jordan" (PDF). p. 12. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
^"Austria". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
^"Greece". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
^"2011–2015 American Community Survey Selected Population Tables". Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
^"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.
^"Language according to age and sex by region 1990 – 2021". Statistics Finland. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
^"Population/Census" (PDF). geostat.ge.
^"Number of resident population by selected nationality" (PDF). United Nations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
^"Australia – Ancestry". 2022. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
^"Atlas of the Languages of Iran A working classification". Languages of Iran. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
^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.
^"Kurds in Turkey".
^"Learn About Kurdish Religion".
^"Kurds of Iran: The missing piece in the Middle East Puzzle".
^Bois, Th.; Minorsky, V.; MacKenzie, D.N. (24 April 2012). "Kurds, Kurdistān". Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition. Vol. 5. Brill Online. p. 439. The Kurds, an Iranian people of the Near East, live at the junction of (...)
^Shoup, John A. (2011). Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598843637.
^Nezan, Kendal. A Brief Survey of the History of the Kurds. Kurdish Institute of Paris.
^Bengio, Ofra (2014). Kurdish Awakening: Nation Building in a Fragmented Homeland. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-75813-1.
^Based on arithmetic from World Factbook and other sources cited herein: A Near Eastern population of 28–30 million, plus approximately a 2 million diaspora gives 30–32 million. If the highest (25%) estimate for the Kurdish population of Turkey, in Mackey (2002), proves correct, this would raise the total to around 37 million.
^"Kurds". The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). Encyclopedia.com. 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
^Windfuhr (2013). Iranian Languages. Routledge. p. 587. ISBN 978-1135797041.
Kurdish people or Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, Kurd) are an Iranic ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern...
'land of the Kurds'; [ˌkʊɾdɪˈstɑːn] ), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo-cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent...
million people). Kurdish sources put the figure at 10 to 15 million Kurds in Turkey. Kurds mostly live in Northern Kurdistan, in Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia...
Zaza–Gorani languages, are also spoken by several million ethnic Kurds. The majority of the Kurds speak Kurmanji, and most Kurdish texts are written in Kurmanji...
been committed against the Kurds, with one prominent incident being the Zilan Massacre. The Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" until...
sources as Akrad 'Adawiyya (Adawiyya Kurds), settled in Lalish valley and introduced his doctrines to the local Kurds at the time practicing an old Iranic...
(Proto-Balochs) inhabited the central areas of Western Iran, and the Kurds (Proto-Kurds), in the wording of G. Windfuhr (1975: 459), lived either in northwestern...
of Sèvres, Iraqi Kurds have experienced a recent troubled political history. After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqi Kurds, now governed by the...
romanized: Kurdayetî, lit. 'Kurdishness / Kurdism') is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of...
Kurdish population. [citation needed] The majority of Syrian Kurds are originally Turkish Kurds who have crossed the border during different events in the...
pp. 7–16. "'We're Arabs just as much as Kurds': Syrian Kurds call for unity". Al Jazeera. Killing of Iraq Kurds 'genocide', BBC, "The Dutch court said...
of North and East Syria. Due to Iranian roots of the Kurds, the colours used in flags used by Kurds are the same that are used in other Iranian-origin areas...
Khorasani Kurds (Kurdish: کوردانی خۆراسان; Persian: کردهای خراسان) are Kurds who live in the provinces of North Khorasan and Razavi Khorasan in northeastern...
Ottoman Kurds were ethnic Kurds who lived in the Ottoman Empire. At its peak, the Ottoman Empire ruled Turkish Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Syrian Kurdistan...
Kurds in the United States refers to people born in or residing in the United States of Kurdish origin or those considered to be ethnic Kurds. The majority...
Kurds in Lebanon are people born in or residing in Lebanon who are of full or partial Kurdish origin. Estimates on the number of Kurds in Lebanon prior...
while Chegini Kurds reside in central Lorestan. The two major religions among Kurds in Iran are Islam and Yarsanism, while fewer Kurds adhere to Baháʼí...
the treatment of the Kurds. During the Newroz celebrations in 2008, three Kurds were shot dead by Syrian security forces. Kurds in the diaspora also celebrate...
Harat al-Akrad (English: Quarter of Kurds).[unreliable source?] Ghassan Kanafani Ayyubids Kurds in Jordan Kurds in Israel "How Palestinians came to reject...
Kurds in Finland (Finnish: Suomen kurdit) refers to Kurds living in Finland. In 2022 there were 16,603 Kurdish speakers in Finland. Kurds started first...
religion, Muslim Kurds persecuted and attacked the Yazidis with particular brutality. Sometimes, during these massacres, Muslim Kurds tried to force the...
ensure the neutrality of the Kurds in the wars against Persia and the Ottoman Empire. In the beginning of the 19th century, Kurds settled in Transcaucasia...
isolated community of Kurds live in north-eastern Iran, about 1000 km away from Iranian Kurdistan. They are referred to as the Kurds of Khorasan and speak...
000, because many Kurds list themselves as Turks and Azeris. Other sources predict this number to be higher, counting up to 60,000 Kurds in Kazakhstan. During...
The Kurds in Azerbaijan form a part of the historically significant Kurdish population in the post-Soviet space. Kurds established a presence in the Caucasus...
Baath thought the Kurds might be packing disputed areas with Kurds from Iran and Turkey, but the real tensions surfaced over the Faili Kurds, resident in Iraq...