1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Iraq
Compare this sourced profile of Erbil, Iraq before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Erbil—1,612,700, Asia/Baghdad, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: capital of Kurdistan Region in Iraq.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Erbil is GeoNames ID 95446. Its recorded administrative path is Arbil → Erbil → Iraq, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Erbil occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-01-18; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Erbil ranks 281 by recorded population. Inside the 11 selected Iraq entries it ranks 3; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 61. Its 1,612,700 population value is 1.33 times the 1,211,849 median for the country cohort and 1.79 times the 902,588 regional median. Erbil falls between the leading tenth and quarter of this atlas's Iraq population cohort. Erbil's recorded value is above the country-cohort median but remains below twice that benchmark. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Erbil's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Mosul at 81.429 km with 1,683,000 recorded people; Kirkuk at 87.499 km with 1,031,000 recorded people; Sulaymaniyah at 145.932 km with 878,146 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 64.503 km. Compared with Mosul, Erbil's recorded population is 0.96 times as large. Against Erbil, Mosul follows Mosul → Nineveh → Iraq in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Iraq cohort, uses the shared Asia/Baghdad identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Erbil's. Against Erbil, Kirkuk follows Kirkuk District → Kirkuk → Iraq in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Iraq cohort, uses the shared Asia/Baghdad identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Erbil's. Against Erbil, Sulaymaniyah follows Qada' as Sulaymaniyah → Sulaymaniyah → Iraq in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Iraq cohort, uses the shared Asia/Baghdad identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Erbil's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 622 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Erbil's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 95446, the coordinate pair 36.1912 / 44.0094, country rank 3 of 11, and neighbor GeoNames 99072 at 81.429 km bind Erbil to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Erbil's reference point is 36.1912° north and 44.0094° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Baghdad is shared by 11 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Erbil's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Erbil's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Erbil's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Erbil, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Erbil's closest other entries in this atlas are Mosul (81.429 km), Kirkuk (87.499 km), Sulaymaniyah (145.932 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Erbil, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-01-18; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.