Kirkuk Governorate (Arabic: محافظة كركوك, romanized: Muḥāfaẓat Karkūk;[3] Kurdish: پارێزگای کەرکووک, romanized: Parêzgeha Kerkûkê/Parêzgayi Kerkûk;[4][5] Turkish: Kerkük Valiliği) or Kirkuk Province is a governorate in northern Iraq.

[9] With the Arabization policies of the Ba'ath party, the number of Arabs in official censuses increased fivefold within 40 years, however the most reliable data indicative of the ethnic breakdown of the governorate are those of the 1957 census.

[11] The Turkmens were seriously affected by the Ba'ath changing Kirkuk borders their percentage fell from 21% to 7%.

[13] Ethnic data from a League of Nations report from 1925 and British data from 1924, 1930 and 1931 (the province had different borders during these years): A report by the International Crisis Group points out that figures from 1977 and 1997 censuses "are all considered highly problematic, due to suspicions of regime manipulation" because Iraqi citizens were only allowed to indicate belonging to either the Arab or Kurdish ethnic groups;[19] consequently, this skewed the number of other ethnic minorities, such as Iraq's third largest ethnic group – the Turkmen.

Archeological sites in the governorate include Arrapḫa, Nuzi and Lubdu, which all date back several thousand years.