Iraqi census to begin first phase late August: Ministry

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq is set to carry out the first phase of its long-awaited national population census later this month with the planning ministry training researchers to carry out the count, a ministry official said on Saturday. 

“The census will be conducted in a fixed phase and time. For the first phase, which involves the counting, 20,000 researchers have been identified and we are now training them to start the process at the end of this month,” Iraqi planning ministry spokesperson Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi told Rudaw. 

Iraq will carry out a census in November. It will be the first general population count conducted since 1997 and the first to include the Kurdistan Region’s provinces since 1987. 

The latest population census in 1997 counted 19 million Iraqis. A separate count put the population of the Kurdish provinces at 2.8 million. The total population now is an estimated 51 million. 

“One of the main objectives of carrying out the census is to fill the gaps and shortcomings in different sectors of the country. Through the census, we can eliminate these shortcomings,” Hindawi said. 

Once phase one is completed, 120,000 researchers will be trained to launch the second phase on November 20, according to the spokesperson. 

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

A census planned for 2020 was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

A key obstacle to conducting a census between Baghdad and Erbil had been the ethnicity question. In April, Iraq said it will carry out the census without surveying its citizens on their ethnicities.