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Iraq
GEOGRAPHY
Size: Area of Iraq variously cited as between
433,970 (excluding Iraqi half of Iraq-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone
shared with Saudi Arabia, consisting of 3,522 square kilometers)
and 437,393 square kilometers.
Topography: Country divided into four major
regions: desert in west and southwest; rolling upland between
upper Euphrates and Tigris rivers; highlands in north and northeast;
and alluvial plain in central and southeast sections.
SOCIETY
Population: Preliminary 1987 census figures
give total of 16,278,000, a 35 percent increase over 1977. Annual
rate of growth 3.1 percent; about 57 percent of population in
1987 under twenty.
Religious and Ethnic Divisions: At least 95
percent of population adheres to some form of Islam. Government
gives number of Shias (see Glossary) as 55 percent but probably
60 to 65 percent is reasonable figure. Most Iraqi Shias are Arabs.
Almost all Kurds, approximately 19 percent of population, are
Sunnis (see Glossary), together with about 13 percent Sunni Arabs.
Total Arab population in 1987 given by government as 76 percent.
Remainder of population small numbers of Turkomans, mostly Sunni
Muslims; Assyrians and Armenians, predominantly Christians; Yazidis,
of Kurdish stock with a syncretistic faith; and a few Jews.
Languages: Arabic official language and mother
tongue of about 76 percent of population; understood by majority
of others. Kurdish official language in As Sulaymaniyah, Dahuk,
and Irbil governorates. Minorities speaking Turkic, Armenian,
and Persian.
Education: Rapidly growing enrollment in tuition-free
public schools. Six years of primary (elementary), three years
of intermediate secondary, and three years of intermediate preparatory
education. Six major universities, forty-four teacher training
schools and institutes, and three colleges and technical institutes,
all government owned and operated. Dramatic increases since 1977
in numbers of students in technical fields (300 percent rise)
and numbers of female primary students (45 percent rise). Literacy
variously estimated at about 40 percent by foreign observers and
70 percent by government. Academic year 1985-86: number of students
in primary schools 2,812,516; secondary schools (general) 1,031,560;
vocational schools 120,090; teacher training schools and institutions
34,187; universities, colleges, and technical institutes 53,037.
Health: High incidence of trachoma, influenza,
measles, whooping cough, and tuberculosis. Considerable progress
has been made in control of malaria. Continuing shortage of modern
trained medical and paramedical personnel, especially in rural
areas and probably in northern Kurdish areas.
Data as of May 1988
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