Iraq launches first national census in nearly four decades

BAGHDAD

Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades Wednesday, a step aimed at modernizing data collection and planning in a country long impacted by conflict and political divisions.

The act of counting the population is also contentious. The census is expected to have profound implications for Iraq’s resource distribution, budget allocations and development planning.

Minority groups fear that a documented decline in their numbers will bring decreased political influence and fewer economic benefits in the country’s sectarian power-sharing system.

The count in territories such as Kirkuk, Diyala and Mosul – where control is disputed between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdish regional government in the north – has drawn intense scrutiny.

Ali Arian Saleh, the executive director of the census at the Ministry of Planning, said agreements on how to conduct the count in the disputed areas were reached in meetings involving Iraq’s prime minister, president and senior officials from the Kurdish region.

“Researchers from all major ethnic groups — Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and Christians — will conduct the census in these areas to ensure fairness,” he said.

The last nationwide census in Iraq was held in 1987. Another one held in 1997 excluded the Kurdish region.

The new census “charts a developmental map for the future and sends a message of stability,” Planning Minister Mohammed Tamim said in a televised address.

The census will be the first to employ advanced technologies for gathering and analyzing data, providing a comprehensive picture of Iraq’s demographic, social, and economic landscape, offiials say. Some 120,000 census workers will survey households across the country, covering approximately 160 housing units each over two days.

The Interior Ministry announced a nationwide curfew during the census period, restricting movement of citizens, vehicles and trains between cities, districts and rural areas, with exceptions for humanitarian cases.

Shops were closed in Baghdad yesterday and streets were empty except for checkpoints set up to enforce the curfew. In some neighborhoods, people sat in chairs on the sidewalks drinking tea and talking to the census workers.