Det anslås at der er mellem 30 og 45 millioner globalt,[29][2] med de fleste i de regioner, kurderne betragter som Stor-Kurdistan. Der er dog betydelige kurdiske diaspora-samfund i byerne i det vestlige Tyrkiet, især Istanbul. En nylig kurdisk diaspora har også udviklet sig i vestlige lande, primært i Tyskland. Kurderne er størstedelen af befolkningen i den selvstyrende region i irakisk kurdistan og er en betydelig minoritetsgruppe i nabolandene i Tyrkiet, Iran og Syrien, hvor kurdiske nationalistiske bevægelser til stadighed stiller krav om større selvstyre og kulturelle rettigheder.
At kurderne er et sammensat folkeslag, fremgår nok tydeligst af kurdisk, deres sprog – her ment i flertal, da de irakiske kurdere taler en ud af tre dialekter (overvejende Sorani), der bruger arabisk skrift. Blandt de iranske kurdere taler de fleste Sorani eller persisk, mens de fleste tyrkiske og syriske kurdere taler Kurmanji, som bruger det romerske alfabet.
De fleste kurdere i Irak, Iran, Syrien og Tyrkiet lærer også arabisk, tyrkisk eller persisk, altså det officielle sprog i deres land. Det er nødvendigt, da undervisning foregår på landenes officielle sprog.
Kurderne har aldrig haft nogen nationalstat, men forskellige grupper i området har i mange år kæmpet for at oprette et selvstændigt Kurdistan. Mange kurdere bor også i storbyer udenfor Kurdistan som i Istanbul, Ankara, Bagdad, Damaskus og Jerevan.
Flertallet af kurderne, omtrent 85 %, er sunnimuslimer. Mange er også alevitter, shia-muslimer eller tilhængere af ikke-muslimske religioner som yazidisme. Flertallet af befolkningen i byerne Kermanshah og Ilam i Iran er tilhængere af shia-islam. Det bor også mange shia-kurdere i Bijar og Qorveh i Iransk Kurdistan. Mahabad og Piranshahr danner regionen Mukriyan.[37]
^ abcdeWorld Factbook (Online udgave). Langley, Virginia: US Central Intelligence Agency. 2015. ISSN1553-8133. Arkiveret fra originalen 12. september 2009. Hentet 2. august 2015. A rough estimate in this edition has populations of 14.3 million in Turkey, 8.2 million in Iran, about 5.6 to 7.4 million in Iraq, and less than 2 million in Syria, which adds up to approximately 28–30 million Kurds in Kurdistan or adjacient regions. CIA estimates are Skabelon:As of – Turkey: Kurdish 18%, of 81.6 million; Iran: Kurd 10%, of 81.82 million; Iraq: Kurdish 15%-20%, of 37.01 million, Syria: Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%, of 17.01 million.
^ abcdefThe Kurdish Population by the Kurdish Institute of Paris, 2017 estimate. The Kurdish population is estimated at 15-20 million in Turkey. 10-12 million in Iran. 8-8.5 million in Iraq. 3-3.6 million in Syria. 1.2-1.5 million in the European diaspora. And 400k-500k in the former USSR. For a total of 36.4 million to 45. 6 million globally.
^Statistical Yearbook of Azerbaijan 2014. 2015. s. 80. Bakı.[bør uddybes]
^Killing of Iraq Kurds 'genocide', BBC, "The Dutch court said it considered legally and convincingly proven that the Kurdish population meets requirement under Genocide Conventions as an ethnic group'."
^Kurdish Awakening: Nation Building in a Fragmented Homeland, (2014), by Ofra Bengio, University of Texas Press
^"Kurds". The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Encyclopedia.com. 2014. Hentet 29. december 2014.
^Bois, T.; Minorsky, V.; MacKenzie, D. N. (2009). "Kurds, Kurdistan". I Bearman, P.; Bianquis, T.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (red.). Encyclopaedia Islamica. Brill. The Kurds, an Iranian people of the Near East, live at the junction of more or less laicised Turkey."... We thus find that about the period of the Arab conquest a single ethnic term Kurd (plur. Akrād) was beginning to be applied to an amalgamation of Iranian or iranicised tribes. ... The classification of the Kurds among the Iranian nations is based mainly on linguistic and historical data and does not prejudice the fact there is a complexity of ethnical elements incorporated in them.
^Based on arithmetic from World Factbook and other sources cited herein: A Near Eastern population of 28–30 million, plus approximately a 2 million diaspora gives 30–32 million. If the highest (25%) estimate for the Kurdish population of Turkey, in Mackey (2002), proves correct, this would raise the total to around 37 million.
^Bois, Th.; Minorsky, V.; Bois, Th.; Bois, Th.; MacKenzie, D.N.; Bois, Th. "Kurds, Kurdistan." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2009. Brill Online. <[http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_COM-0544> Excerpt 1:"The Kurds, an Iranian people of the Near East, live at the junction of more or less laicised Turkey" *Michael G. Morony, "Iraq After the Muslim Conquest", Gorgias Press LLC, 2005. pg 265: "Kurds were the only smaller ethnic group native to Iraq. As with the Persians, their presence along the northeastern edge of Iraq was merely an extension of their presence in Western Iran. All of the non-Persian, tribal, pastoral, Iranian groups in the foothills and the mountains of the Zagros range along the eastern fringes of Iraq were called Kurds at that time."]
^G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp.1-58, 2009: "The ancient history of the Kurds, as in case of many other Iranian ethnic groups (Baluchis, etc.), can be reconstructed but in a very tentative and abstract form"
^Michael G. Morony, "Iraq After the Muslim Conquest", Gorgias Press LLC, 2005. pg 265: "Kurds were only small ethnic group native to Iraq. As with the Persians, their presence along the northeastern edge of Iraq was merely an extension of their presence in Western Iran. All of the non-Persian, tribal, pastoral, Iranian groups in the foothills and the mountains of the Zagros range along the eastern fringes of Iraq were called Kurd at that time.
^E. J. van Donzel, "Islamic desk reference ", BRILL, 1994. ISBN9004097384. pg 222: "Kurds/Kurdistan: the Kurds are an Iranian people who live mainly at the junction of more or less laicised Turkey, Shi'i Iran, Arab Sunni Iraq and North Syria and the former Soviet Transcaucasia. Several dynasties, such as the Marwanids of Diyarbakir, the Ayyubids, the Shaddadis and possibly the Safawids, as well as prominent personalities, were of Kurdish origin.
^John Limbert, The Origins and Appearance of the Kurds in Pre-Islamic Iran, Iranian Studies, Vol.1, No.2, Spring 1968, pp.41-51. p.41: "In these last areas, the historic road from Baghdad to Hamadan and beyond divides the Kurds from their Iranian cousins, the Lurs."
^RUSSELL, JR 1990 « Pre-Christian Armenian Religion*, dans Aufstieg und Nieder- gang der Romischen Welt, II, 18.4, p. 2679-2692, Berlin-New York, 1990., pg 2691: "A study of the pre-Islamic religion of the Kurds, an Iranian people who inhabited southern parts of Armenia from ancient times to present, has yet to be written"