Iraq's population reaches nearly 45.5 million, census shows

BAGHDAD

Iraq’s population has reached nearly 45.5 million, shows preliminary results of the country’s first census since 1987.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani said yesterday that Iraq’s population has risen to 45,407,895 with 70.3 percent living in urban areas and 29.7 percent in rural areas.

"The number of households is 7,898,588, with an average household size of 5.3 individuals," he told a press conference in Baghdad.

The census was conducted on Nov. 20 covering the entire country, including the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, the first such census in 37 years. The population of the Kurdish region in the northern Iraq surpassed 6.3 million.

Turkmens call for census annulment

However, Turkmen groups residing in Kirkuk said that a significant number of Kurds were brought to the region prior to the census to alter the area's demographic records. Turkmen representatives demanded the annulment of the census, citing irregularities.

They reported suspicious records on the first day of the census, including 97 individuals registered in a single household in a district of Kirkuk and 94 in another.

Eyüp Kerem, the head of the Iraqi Turkmen Association, said that thousands of individuals from Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, the PKK-controlled Makhmour Camp, as well as Syria and Iran, were relocated to Kirkuk and included in the resident population. He also said that on the eve of the census, large convoys transported Kurdish populations into Kirkuk city center, describing this as a grave violation of the historical rights of Iraqi Turkmens.

Last week, Ankara expressed concern about the population movement toward Iraq's northern Kirkuk province.

Türkiye is closely monitoring developments on the intensive movement of Kurdish people from the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to Kirkuk amid the census, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Öncü Keçeli wrote on X.

"Although no data on ethnic origins has been collected in the said census, the intense population movement has understandably caused concern among Iraqi Turkmen and Arab communities," Keçeli said.

He emphasized that the irregularity could result in the inclusion of groups who are not originally from Kirkuk into the city's population through fait accompli and that it would clearly affect future elections.