1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Iraq
Compare this sourced profile of Kirkuk, 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 Kirkuk—1,031,000, 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: city in Iraq.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Kirkuk is GeoNames ID 94787. Its recorded administrative path is Kirkuk District → Kirkuk → Iraq, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Kirkuk 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, Kirkuk ranks 526 by recorded population. Inside the 11 selected Iraq entries it ranks 7; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 109. Its 1,031,000 population value is 0.85 times the 1,211,849 median for the country cohort and 1.14 times the 902,588 regional median. Kirkuk sits in the lower half of this atlas's selected Iraq entries. Kirkuk's recorded value stays within one quarter of the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Kirkuk's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Erbil at 87.499 km with 1,612,700 recorded people; Sulaymaniyah at 94.803 km with 878,146 recorded people; Mosul at 149.819 km with 1,683,000 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 62.32 km. Compared with Erbil, Kirkuk's recorded population is 0.64 times as large. Against Kirkuk, Erbil follows Arbil → Erbil → 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 Kirkuk's. Against Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyah follows Qada' as Sulaymaniyah → Sulaymaniyah → Iraq in the source. Its point has higher 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 Kirkuk's. Against Kirkuk, 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 Kirkuk's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 644 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Kirkuk'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 94787, the coordinate pair 35.4681 / 44.3922, country rank 7 of 11, and neighbor GeoNames 95446 at 87.499 km bind Kirkuk to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Kirkuk's reference point is 35.4681° north and 44.3922° 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. Kirkuk's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Kirkuk's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Kirkuk's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Kirkuk, 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
Kirkuk's closest other entries in this atlas are Erbil (87.499 km), Sulaymaniyah (94.803 km), Mosul (149.819 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Kirkuk, 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.