Osh Province

Coordinates: 40°0′N 73°0′E / 40°N 73°E / 40; 73

Osh Province
Ош областы, Ошская область
Province
Country	Kyrgyzstan
Capital	Osh
Area	29,200 km2 (11,274 sq mi)
Population	1,299,500 (2005)
Density	44.5 / km2 (115 / sq mi)
Governor	Naken Kasiyev
ISO 3166-2	KG-O

Osh Province (Kyrgyz: Ош областы, Russian: Ошская область) is a province (oblast) of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Osh. It is bounded by (clockwise) Jalal-Abad Province, Naryn Province, Xinjiang, China, Tajikistan, Batken Province and Uzbekistan.

Geography

Most of the population lives in the flat northern part of the Oblast, on the edge of the Ferghana Valley. The land gradually rises southward to the crest of the Alay Mountains, drops into the Alay Valley and rises to the Trans-Alai Range which forms the border with Tajikistan. In the east, the land rises to the Ferghana Range which is roughly parallel to the Naryn border. This area is drained by the Kara Darya which flows northwest to join the Naryn River to form the Syr Darya in the Ferghana Valley.

Highway M41 goes south over the mountains from Osh to the Tajik border. At Sary-Tash a branch goes east to the Chinese border crossing at Irkeshtam. The other main road goes west through the flat country to Batken Province.

Demographics

As of 2009, Osh Province (excluding Osh) comprised 3 towns (Nookat, Uzgen, and Kara-Suu), 2 urban-type settlement and 474 villages. Its de facto population, according to the Population and Housing Census of 2009, was 999,576. Of them, 82,841 people live in urban areas, and 916,735 in rural ones.

More than half of all Kyrgyzstan's Uzbeks live in Osh Province. They are 33% of the provincial population as opposed to 14,5% in Kyrgyzstan as a whole.^{[citation needed]}

Historical populations in Osh Province
Year	Pop.	±%
1970	433,036	—
1979	552,843	+27.7%
1989	716,983	+29.7%
1999	940,633	+31.2%
2009	999,576	+6.3%
Note: enumerated de facto population; Source: [1]

Ethnic composition

According to the 2009 Census, the ethnic composition of the Osh Province (de jure population) was:^[1]

Ethnic group	Population	Proportion of Uzgen District population
Kyrgyzs	&10000000000758036000000758,036	68.6%
Uzbeks	&10000000000308688000000308,688	28.0%
Uygurs	&1000000000001118100000011,181	1%
Turks	&1000000000001093400000010,934	1%
Tadjiks	&100000000000067110000006,711	0.6%
Azerbaijanis	&100000000000032240000003,224	0.3%
Russians	&100000000000015520000001,552	0.1%
Tatars	&100000000000013370000001,337	0.1%
Dungans	&10000000000000793000000793	0.1%
other groups	&100000000000017920000001,792	0.2%

Districts of Osh Province

Osh province is divided administratively into 7 districts (listed counter-clockwise)^[2]:

District	Capital	Location
Uzgen District	Uzgen	North1
Kara-Suu District	Kara-Suu	North2
Aravan District	Aravan	North3
Nookat District	Eski-Nookat	West
Chong-Alay District	Daroot-Korgon	Southwest
Alay District	Gul'cha	Southeast
Kara-Kulja District	Kara-Kulja	East

Enclaves and exclaves

Kyrgyzstan's only exclave within Uzbekistan is administratively part of Osh Province (Kara-Suu District). This is the tiny village of Barak (population 627) in the Fergana valley, located on the road from Osh (Kyrgyzstan) to Khodjaabad (Uzbekistan) about 4 km north-west from the Kyrgyz–Uzbek border in the direction of Andijan.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Population and Housing Census 2009. Book 3 (in tables). Provinces of Kyrgyzstan: Chuy Province (Перепись населения и жилищного фонда Кыргызской Республики 2009. Книга 3 (в таблицах). Регионы Кыргызстана: Ошская область, Bishkek: National Committee on Statistics, 2010, http://212.42.101.100:8088/nacstat/sites/default/files/%D0%9E%D1%88%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F%20%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C.pdf 
2. ^ Kyrgyzstan - Джалал-Абадская область
3. ^ Map showing the location of the Kyrgyz exclave Barak. Retrieved on 2 May 2009

• Laurence Mitchell, Kyrgyzstan, Bradt Travel Guides, 2008