Iraq: Population
Chapter 3: Persian Gulf, Arabian Peninsula
Iraq: Population
Population, Ethnic Groups
/ Language, Religion / Education
/ Statistics
Overview
/ Leadership / System Essentials
/ Infrastructure / Fielded Forces
/ Table of Contents
Tahrir Square, Baghdad
Iraq has a population of 19.9 million and an annual growth rate of 3.3%. 75% of Iraq's population live in the flat, alluvial plain stretching southeast from towards Baghdad and Basra to the Persian Gulf.
Iraq's two largest ethnic groups are Arabs (80%) and Kurds (20%). Assyrians, Turkomans, Iranians, Lurs, and Armenians are scattered throughout the country.
Arabic is the most commonly spoken language. Kurdish is spoken in the North and English is the most commonly spoken western language.
At least 95 percent of the population adheres to some form of Islam. The Iraqi government gives the number of Shiites as 55 percent of the total population, but probably 60 to 65 percent is a reasonable figure. Most Iraqi Shiites are Arabs. Almost all Kurds, approximately 20 percent of the population, are Sunnis. About 13 percent of the population are Sunni Arabs.
In Iraq, there has been a rapidly growing enrollment in tuition-free public schools. The public education programs includes six years of primary (elementary), three years of intermediate secondary, and three years of intermediate preparatory education. There are six major universities, forty-four teacher training schools and institutes, and three colleges and technical institutes, all government owned and operated. Over the past decade, there has been a large increase of students in technical fields and of female primary students. Literacy has been variously estimated at about 40 percent by foreign observers and 70 percent by the government.
World ranking (of 191)
