Iraq is the region known outside the Islamic world as Mesopotamia. The population estimate in 1920 was 3 million. The ruins of Ur, Babylon and other ancient cities are situated in Iraq, as is the legendary location of the Garden of Eden. Almost 75% of Iraq's population lives in the flat, alluvial plain stretching southeast from Tikrit to the Persian Gulf. The Tigris and the Euphrates carry about 70 million cubic meters of silt annually from this plain down to the delta. The water from these two great rivers, and the fertility of the soil in the alluvial plain and the delta, allowed early agriculture to sustain a stable population as far back as the 7th millennium BC.
Iraq's dominant ethnic group are the Mesopotamian Arabs, who account for more than three-quarters of the population. According to the CIA World Factbook, citing a 1987 Iraqi government estimate, the population of Iraq is formed of 70% Arabs followed by 25% Kurds. In addition, the estimate claims that other minorities form 5% of the country's population, including the Turkmen/Turcoman, Yazidis, Shabaks, Kaka'i, Bedouins, Roma, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Circassians, Sabaean-Mandaean, and Persians. However, the International Crisis Group points out that figures from the 1987 census, as well as the 1967, 1977, and 1997 censuses, "are all considered highly problematic, due to suspicions of regime manipulation" because Iraqi citizens were only allowed to indicate belonging to either the Arab or Kurdish ethnic groups; consequently, this skewed the number of other ethnic minorities, such as Iraq's third largest ethnic group – the Turkmens/Turkomans. A report published by the European Parliamentary Research Service suggests that in 2015 there was 20 million Arabs ; 8 million Sunni Kurds ; 0.5 million Iraqi Turkmen/Turkoman; 1 million Black Iraqis; 500,000 Christians ; 500,000 Yazidis; 250,000 Shabaks; 50,000 Roma; 3,000 Sabean-Mandaeans; 2,000 Circassians; 1,000 Baha’i; and a few dozen Jews.
Languages
Arabic and Kurdish are the two official languages of Iraq. Arabic is taught across all schools in Iraq, however in the north the Kurdish language is the most spoken. Eastern Aramaic languages, such as Syriac and Mandaic are spoken, as well as the Iraqi Turkoman language, and various other indigenous languages. Kurdish, including several dialects, is the second largest language and has regional language status in the north of the country. Aramaic, in antiquity spoken throughout the whole country, is now only spoken by the Assyrian Chaldean minority. The Iraqi Turkmen/Turkoman dialect of Turkish is spoken in pockets of northern Iraq and numerous languages of the Caucasus are also spoken by minorities, notably the Chechen community.
Religions
98% of Iraqis follow Islam: 51% Shia and 42% Sunni. 5% of these describe themselves as "Just a Muslim". According to the CIA World Factbook, Shias make up 58% of population, while Sunnis make up 37%. Christianity accounts for 1–2%, and the rest practice Yazidism, Mandaeism, and other religions. While there has been voluntary relocation of many Christian families to northern Iraq, recent reporting indicates that the overall Christian population may have dropped by as much as 50 percent since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, with many fleeing to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. The percentage of Christians has fallen from 6% in 1991 or 1.5 million to about one third of this. Estimates say there are 500,000 Christians in Iraq. Nearly all Iraqi Kurds are Sunni Muslims. A survey in Iraq concluded that "98% of Kurds in Iraq identified themselves as Sunnis and only 2% identified as Shias". The religious differences between Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurds are small. While 98 percent of Shia Arabs believe that visiting the shrines of saints is acceptable, 71 percent of Sunni Arabs did and 59 percent of Sunni Kurds support this practice. About 94 percent of the population in Iraqi Kurdistan is Muslim.
Demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Age structure
Ethnic groups
Religions
According to Pew, which surveyed nearly 1,500 scientifically random-sampled Iraqis regarding their religious affiliations, and also their religious beliefs and practices, at "The few available survey measures of religious identity in Iraq suggest that about half the country is Shia. Surveys by ABC News found between 47% and 51% of the country identifying as Shia between 2007 and 2009, and a Pew Research survey conducted in Iraq in late 2011 found that 51% of Iraqi Muslims said they were Shia." The following figures aren't linked to sources, and therefore may be entirely untrustworthy though the editors at Wikipedia have allowed them to be published here:
