| Population | 39,650,145 (July 2021 est.) |
| Nationality | noun: Iraqi(s) adjective: Iraqi |
| Ethnic groups | Arab 75-80%, Kurdish 15-20%, other 5% (includes Turkmen, Yezidi, Shabak, Kaka'i, Bedouin, Romani, Assyrian, Circassian, Sabaean-Mandaean, Persian) note: data is a 1987 government estimate; no more recent reliable numbers are available |
| Languages | Arabic (official), Kurdish (official), Turkmen (a Turkish dialect), Syriac (Neo-Aramaic), and Armenian are official in areas where native speakers of these languages constitute a majority of the population major-language sample(s): ???? ????? ??????? ???? ???? ????????? ???????? (Arabic) The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information. |
| Religions | Muslim (official) 95-98% (Shia 64-69%, Sunni 29-34%), Christian 1% (includes Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Assyrian Church of the East), other 1-4% (2015 est.) note: while there has been voluntary relocation of many Christian families to northern Iraq, the overall Christian population has decreased at least 50% and perhaps as high as 90% since the fall of the SADDAM Husayn regime in 2003, according to US Embassy estimates, with many fleeing to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon |
| Age structure | 0-14 years: 37.02% (male 7,349,868/female 7,041,405) 15-24 years: 19.83% (male 3,918,433/female 3,788,157) 25-54 years: 35.59% (male 6,919,569/female 6,914,856) 55-64 years: 4.23% (male 805,397/female 839,137) 65 years and over: 3.33% (male 576,593/female 719,240) (2020 est.) |
| Dependency ratios | total dependency ratio: 69.9 youth dependency ratio: 64.1 elderly dependency ratio: 5.9 potential support ratio: 17.1 (2020 est.) |
| Median age | total: 21.2 years male: 20.8 years female: 21.6 years (2020 est.) |
| Population growth rate | 2.06% (2021 est.) |
| Birth rate | 25.21 births/1,000 population (2021 est.) |
| Death rate | 3.92 deaths/1,000 population (2021 est.) |
| Net migration rate | -0.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2021 est.) |
| Population distribution | population is concentrated in the north, center, and eastern parts of the country, with many of the larger urban agglomerations found along extensive parts of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; much of the western and southern areas are either lightly populated or uninhabited |
| Urbanization | urban population: 71.1% of total population (2021) rate of urbanization: 2.91% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.) |
| Major cities - population | 7.323 million BAGHDAD (capital), 1.683 million Mosul, 1.382 million Basra, 1.031 million Kirkuk, 901,000 Najaf, 861,000 Erbil (2021) |
| Sex ratio | at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-24 years: 1.03 male(s)/female 25-54 years: 1 male(s)/female 55-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2020 est.) |
| Maternal mortality rate | 79 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.) |
| Infant mortality rate | total: 20.08 deaths/1,000 live births male: 21.84 deaths/1,000 live births female: 18.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2021 est.) |
| Life expectancy at birth | total population: 72.9 years male: 71.01 years female: 74.89 years (2021 est.) |
| Total fertility rate | 3.32 children born/woman (2021 est.) |
| Contraceptive prevalence rate | 52.8% (2018) |
| Drinking water source | improved: urban: 98.8% of population rural: 95% of population total: 97.9% of population unimproved: urban: 1.2% of population rural: 5% of population total: 2.1% of population (2017 est.) |
| Health expenditures | 4.1% (2018) |
| Physicians density | 0.71 physicians/1,000 population (2018) |
| Hospital bed density | 1.3 beds/1,000 population (2017) |
| Sanitation facility access | improved: urban: 96.7% of population rural: 89.7% of population total: 95.2% of population unimproved: urban: 3.3% of population rural: 10.3% of population total: 4.8% of population (2017 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate | NA |
| HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS | NA |
| HIV/AIDS - deaths | NA |
| Major infectious diseases | degree of risk: intermediate (2020) food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever note: widespread ongoing transmission of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is occurring throughout Iraq; as of 19 July 2021, Iraq has reported a total of 1,501,595 cases of COVID-19 or 3,733.22 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population with 44.48 cumulative deaths per 100,000 population; as of 19 July 2021, 1.74% of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine |
| Obesity - adult prevalence rate | 30.4% (2016) |
| Food insecurity | severe localized food insecurity: due to civil conflict, low oil prices, and economic slowdown - the 2021 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) for Iraq identified 4.1 million people in need, of which 2.4 million have acute humanitarian needs; while the number of people in need remained similar to the previous year, the severity of those needs increased, largely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on top of an existing humanitarian crisis, leading to a 35% increase in the number of people in acute need; more than half of these are concentrated in the governorates of Nineveh and Anbar; the number of severely food insecure people is estimated at about 435,000, while 731,000 are vulnerable to food insecurity (2021) |
| Children under the age of 5 years underweight | 3.9% (2018) |
| Education expenditures | NA |
| Literacy | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 50.1% male: 56.2% female: 44% (2018) |
Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021
