[6] Şanlıurfa province is divided into 13 districts, listed below with their populations as at 31 December 2022 according to the official government estimates:[1] Rainfall by season in the Urfa region [7]: 194 With an area of 19,242 km2 (7,429 sq mi), it is the largest province of Southeast Anatolia with: Şanlıurfa includes several major components of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (in Turkish Güneydogu Anadolu Projesi (GAP)) designed to: This very large-scale, state-sponsored development project involved the damming, redirecting, hydroelectric tapping and other use of rivers in this broad, semi-arid region.

The GAP includes 22 dams and water supply for 1.8 million hectares for agricultural areas.

[7]: 192  The dry season typically begins around April, peaks in intensity around July, and ends around October.

[7]: 195 The area around Urfa and Viranşehir, and continuing towards Mardin further east, is the driest part of a "desert-like steppe" region in southeastern Anatolia.

[7]: 190  As one approaches the Syrian border in the south, the climate gets drier due to less rainfall and it becomes more desert-like.

[7]: 190  In some sheltered valleys, though, pockets of Mediterranean flora still exist – remnants of what was once a more widespread distribution prior to a climactic shift in the region sometime in the past.

[9]: 52  Other important industries (based on location quotient) include treatment and coating of metals (especially copper) and the manufacturing of pumps, compressors, and other agricultural equipment.

[9]: 53 The largest part of the service sector in Şanlıurfa province, both in GDP and employment, is wholesale and retail trade.

[11]: 259 Employment for Syrians is concentrated most heavily in the construction, retail and wholesale, and agricultural sectors.

[16] According to TÜİK, there were 955 marriages of girls under the age of 18 in Şanlıurfa province in 2021, which was the second-highest in the country behind Gaziantep.

[17] The famous çiğ köfte belongs to the culinary traditions of the city and was unknown to the rural population until 1980s.

[19]: 292  The game locally known as "Arası Kesme" (called "Ara Kesme", "Esir Almaca", or other names in other parts of Turkey) is a capture-style game where one team tries to retrieve players from a designated area while the other team tries to stop them.

[19]: 303  "Çukur Atma" is a marbles-type game of Urfa, except played with plum or apricot seeds instead of actual marbles.

[20]: 151 On 1 January 1928 the province was included into the First Inspectorate-General over which an Inspector-General ruled according to the policies recommended in Report for Reform in the East.

[21] The Inspectorate was governed with martial law and span over the provinces of Hakkâri, Siirt, Van, Mardin, Bitlis, Şanlıurfa, Elaziğ and Diyarbakır.

While the AKP managed to win Şanlıurfa with a comfortable 43.04% during the 2004 local elections, it has since then increased its margins of victory here.

Following the diminishing popularity of smaller parties such as the DYP, Şanlıurfa heavily shifted towards the AKP, winning the November 2015 election with 64.55% of the votes.

Şanlıurfa once again showed its status as an AKP stronghold in the 2017 referendum, with the Yes vote winning with a wide margin of 41.8%.

[24] The far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) scored an exceptional 7.18% in the 1999 local elections.

The MHP showed a significant recovery in the indecisive June 2015 election by winning 5.56% of the votes.

However, the MHP went on to suffer from a nationwide loss in the upset November 2015 election, with its vote share declining to 2.75% in Şanlıurfa.

The centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP) usually maintains a modest share of slightly below 5%.

[26] Within the province, approximately 12 km (7 mi) northeast of the city of Şanlıurfa, is the pre-historic site of Göbekli Tepe, where continuing excavations have unearthed 12,000-year-old sanctuaries dating from the early Neolithic period, considered to be the oldest temples in the world, predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years.