The last national census dates from 1987, during the Iran-Iraq war, when former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was in power. Iraq then had 16.6 million inhabitants, compared to 42 or 43 million today. Since then, the country has experienced genocidal campaigns against the Kurds, the Gulf War in 1990, the American invasion in 2003, followed by a sectarian war, the terrorism of Daesh and the massacre of the Yazidis, to which were added the latter tens of thousands of climate displaced people over the years.
Strong political impact
The government hopes that the data collected will make it possible to better allocate financial resources to the regions, reduce poverty and illiteracy and invest effectively in infrastructure which is sorely lacking throughout the territory.
But this meticulous inventory worries the Iraqis: “My family is panicked: between marriages, divorces, those who left after the American invasion and those who returned, the official residents of our house are completely different from those who live there, explains Yasser, 28, who lives in a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. We don’t really have a choice, it’s almost impossible to obtain a resident card, because we need two witnesses who attest to our address, but no one wants to testify, because it’s a legal commitment, and in Iraq , it is considered too risky. But without a resident card, no identity card, without an identity card, no job or access to university! We will surely get a big fine… In the meantime, we will go shopping and prepare for confinement.”
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The census is expected to have a strong political impact, as Iraq is governed according to religious and ethnic quotas, which must reflect the composition of the population, both nationally and locally. They will need to be updated, including in contested territories, such as the oil-rich city of Kirkuk (east), claimed by Kurdistan. For these few regions, the results will only be made public when a comparison with the 1957 census data, which is the reference, is made. Already, Kurdistan, which has an autonomous status and has hosted many internally displaced persons, is considering renegotiating its share of the federal budget upwards.
