The largest cities of the region are Kropyvnytskyi, Oleksandriia, Znamianka and Svitlovodsk.

[6][7] In the Middle Ages, during the time of Kyivan Rus', the East Slavic tribe of Ulichis lived here.

[8] After the liberation of the former Kyivan Rus' from the Tatars in the Battle of Blue Waters and the unification of the principalities of Kyiv, Pereyaslav, and Chernihiv with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,[9][10] there was a need to protect the southeastern borders from attacks by the Crimean Khanate and Moscovy - states that were formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde at the end of the 15th century.

For this, Dmytro Vyshnevetsky founded the first Zaporozhian Sich on the island of Khortytsia, thus the Ukrainian Cossacs appeared.

These lands were under the rule of the Ukrainian Cossacks of Hetmanate and Zaporozhian Sich from XV to XVIII century.

An emphasis was placed on the development of its agriculture and the Skarzynskis opened a school in Migeya dedicated to this.

[17][18][19] [20] During World War II, the oblast was under Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944 and was liberated as a result of Kirovograd offensive.

Between 1939 and 2016, the oblast administrative center, Kropyvnytskyi, was called Kirovohrad and was named after the First Secretary of the Leningrad City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Sergei Kirov.

[21] Due to decommunization laws (on 14 July 2016) the name of the city was changed to Kropyvnytskyi.