Kerkrade ([ˈkɛrkraːdə], Kerkrade dialect: Kirchroa) is a town and a municipality in the southeast of Limburg, the southernmost province of the Netherlands.Kerkrade is the western half of a divided city; before the independence of the Netherlands, it was part of the German town of Herzogenrath. The two towns, including outlying suburban settlements, have a population approaching 100,000, of which nearly 47,000 in Kerkrade.