Iraq: People & Society#

Population	38,146,025 (July 2016 est.)
Nationality	noun: Iraqi(s) adjective: Iraqi
Ethnic groups	Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian, other 5%
Languages	Arabic (official), Kurdish (official), Turkmen (a Turkish dialect) and Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic) are official in areas where they constitute a majority of the population), Armenian
Religions	Muslim (official) 99% (Shia 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian 0.8%, Hindu <0.1, Buddhist <0.1, Jewish <0.1, folk religion <0.1, unafilliated 0.1, other <0.1 note: 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 the SADDAM Husayn regime in 2003, with many fleeing to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon (2010 est.)
Age structure	0-14 years: 39.88% (male 7,766,832/female 7,445,633) 15-24 years: 19.07% (male 3,703,302/female 3,572,702) 25-54 years: 33.7% (male 6,499,345/female 6,354,506) 55-64 years: 3.96% (male 720,976/female 790,301) 65 years and over: 3.39% (male 574,521/female 717,907) (2016 est.)
Dependency ratios	total dependency ratio: 78.7% youth dependency ratio: 73.2% elderly dependency ratio: 5.5% potential support ratio: 18.3% (2015 est.)
Median age	total: 19.9 years male: 19.6 years female: 20.2 years (2016 est.)
Population growth rate	2.87% (2016 est.)
Birth rate	30.9 births/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Death rate	3.8 deaths/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Net migration rate	1.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Population distribution	population is concentrated in the north, center, and eastern parts of the country, with many of the larger 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: 69.5% of total population (2015) rate of urbanization: 3.01% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)
Major urban areas - population	BAGHDAD (capital) 6.643 million; Mosul 1.694 million; Erbil 1.166 million; Basra 1.019 million; As Sulaymaniyah 1.004 million; Najaf 889,000 (2015)
Sex ratio	at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-24 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 25-54 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 55-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2016 est.)
Maternal mortality rate	50 deaths/100,000 live births (2015 est.)
Infant mortality rate	total: 37.5 deaths/1,000 live births male: 40.6 deaths/1,000 live births female: 34.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2016 est.)
Life expectancy at birth	total population: 74.9 years male: 72.6 years female: 77.2 years (2016 est.)
Total fertility rate	4.06 children born/woman (2016 est.)
Contraceptive prevalence rate	52.5% (2011)
Health expenditures	5.5% of GDP (2014)
Physicians density	0.61 physicians/1,000 population (2010)
Hospital bed density	1.3 beds/1,000 population (2012)
Drinking water source	improved: urban: 93.8% of population rural: 70.1% of population total: 86.6% of population unimproved: urban: 6.1% of population rural: 31.5% of population total: 14.6% of population (2015 est.)
Sanitation facility access	improved: urban: 86.4% of population rural: 83.8% of population total: 85.6% of population unimproved: urban: 13.6% of population rural: 16.2% of population total: 14.4% of population (2015 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 food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever (2016)
Obesity - adult prevalence rate	21.2% (2014)
Children under the age of 5 years underweight	8.5% (2011)
Education expenditures	NA
Literacy	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 79.7% male: 85.7% female: 73.7% (2015 est.)
Child labor - children ages 5-14	total number: 715,737 percentage: 11% (2006 est.)