Iraqi ministry says 15 months needed for population census

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s ministry of planning has told the government it needs 15 months to conduct a population census, the country’s first in around 26 years, state media reported on Sunday. 

Iraqi state media cited an official of the ministry as saying that a letter had been sent detailing that eight months are needed to prepare for the census and then another seven for completing the requirements and carrying it out. 

The procedures are expected to be completed by October 2024, when the planning ministry is ready to conduct the census, the source added, noting that a satisfactory budget is needed.

Earlier this year, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, ordered the planning ministry to conduct the population census by the end of this year.

Iraq has not conducted a full census since 1987. Its latest one, in 1997, counted 19 million Iraqis, but it excluded the Kurdistan Region. A separate count put the population of the three Kurdish provinces at 2.8 million.

A new census was planned to take place in 2020, but it was postponed to November 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s cabinet took a decision to hold an “electronic national population census”, in the final quarter of this year.

Iraq has been discussing carrying out a new census for years that should contribute to the resolution of historical problems like Baathist-era Arabization, the status of disputed Kirkuk, which is claimed by both the federal Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and the size of the KRG’s share of federal funds.