Osh Region

Coordinates: 40°0′N 73°0′E / 40.000°N 73.000°E / 40.000; 73.000

Osh Province
Ош областы, Ошская область
Province
Country	Kyrgyzstan
Capital	Osh
Area	28,934 km2 (11,171 sq mi)
Population	999,576 (2009)
Density	34.6 / km2 (90 / sq mi)
Governor	Sooronbay Jeenbekov (since May 14, 2010)
ISO 3166-2	KG-O
[1]

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.

Ethnic composition

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

Districts of Osh Province

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

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

• Laurence Mitchell, Kyrgyzstan, Bradt Travel Guides, 2008

	Andijon Province,  Uzbekistan Fergana Province,  Uzbekistan	Jalal-Abad Province	Naryn Province
	Batken Province		Xinjiang, China
	Osh Province
	Districts of Republican Subordination,  Tajikistan	Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province,  Tajikistan

Regions of Kyrgyzstan Batken Bishkek (city) Chuy Issyk Kul Jalal-Abad Naryn Osh Osh (city) Talas