Osh Region


Osh Region is a region of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Osh. It is bounded by Jalal-Abad Region, Naryn Region, Xinjiang, China, Tajikistan, Batken Region, 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 Region.

Demographics

As of 2009, Osh Region comprised 3 towns, 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. Official population estimate for the beginning of 2020 was 1,368,054.
More than half of all Kyrgyzstan's Uzbeks live in Osh Region. They are 28% of the regional population according to the 2009 census.

Ethnic composition

According to the 2009 Census, the ethnic composition of the Osh Region was:
Ethnic groupPopulationProportion of population---------------------------
Kyrgyzs68.6%
Uzbeks28.0%
Uygurs1%
Turks1%
Tajiks0.6%
Azerbaijanis0.3%
Russians0.1%
Tatars0.1%
Dungans0.1%
other groups0.2%

Districts

Osh Region is divided administratively into 7 districts :
DistrictCapitalLocation
Uzgen DistrictUzgenNorth1
Kara-Suu DistrictKara-SuuNorth2
Aravan DistrictAravanNorth3
Nookat DistrictEski-NookatWest
Chong-Alay DistrictDaroot-KorgonSouthwest
Alay DistrictGul'chaSoutheast
Kara-Kulja DistrictKara-KuljaEast

Enclaves and exclaves

Kyrgyzstan's only exclave within Uzbekistan is administratively part of Osh Region. This is the tiny village of Barak in the Fergana valley, located on the road from Osh to Khodjaabad about 4 km north-west from the Kyrgyz–Uzbek border in the direction of Andijan.