The Riyadh Province ( '), is a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, located in the geographic center of the country and the center of the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

. It has an area of and with a 2022 population of 8,591,748, it is the second-largest region by area, behind the Eastern Province and the largest by population. The capital governorate of the province is the Riyadh Governorate and it is named after the capital of the kingdom,

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

, which is the most populous city in the region and the kingdom, with a little less than two-thirds of the population of the region residing within the city. The province was governed for nearly five decades by Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz from 1963 to 2011 shortly before he became the

Crown Prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...

in 2012. Currently, it is governed by Prince Faisal bin Bandar. Other populous cities in the region include Al Ghat, Dawadmi, Afif, Zulfi and Majma'ah. Approximately half of the region's area is desert, and it only borders other regions of the kingdom; it has no international borders. The region borders, clockwise from the north, the Eastern Province,

Najran Province Najran ( ') is a Southern Provinces of Saudi Arabia, province of Saudi Arabia. It has an area of 149,511 km². Its capital is Najran. Najran is inhabited by the Banu Yam, Yam tribe. A significant percentage of the province's inhabitants ar ...

, ʽAsir Province,

Mecca Province Mecca Province (, ), officially Makkah Province, is one of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia. It is the third-largest province by area at and the most populous with a population of 8,557,766 as of 2017, of which 4,041,189 were foreign nationals ...

, Medina Province and the

Al-Qassim Province The Qassim Province ( ' , Najdi Arabic: ), also known as the Qassim Region, is one of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia. Located at the heart of the country near the geographic center of the Arabian Peninsula, it has a population of 1,336,179 and ...

. It is one of the 7 regions of the kingdom that do not have a coastline.

Population

Population development since 1992:

Subdivisions

In addition to the Municipality of

, the region is divided into 19 governorates ('' muhafazat'') and one sub-governorate ('' markaz''): *

* Layla * 'Afif * Dawadmi * Al-Ghat * Al-Gway'iyyah * Al-Hareeg *

Al-Kharj Kharj () is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate in central Saudi Arabia. It is one of the important governorates in Saudi Arabia. Located southeast of the capital, Riyadh, it covers an area of 7640 mi2 (19,790 km2) and has a popu ...

Al Majma'ah Al Majma'ah () is a city and a governorate in Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia. It is located at around , and it is the capital of the Sudair region. The city has an area of 30,000 square kilometres. The population of the town is around 70,000, while ...

* Al-Muzahmiyyah * Al-Sulayyil * Dhruma * Dir'iyyah * Hotat Bani Tamim * Huraymila * Rimah * Shaqra * Thadig * Wadi ad-Dawasir * Marat * Yabrin * Al-Zulfi

Modern history of Riyadh Province and Saudi Arabia

List of governors

References

External links