33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

IRAQ 3 LITERACY RATE : 79.7% 4 ETHNIC GROUPS: There are two main ethnic groups within Iraq: Arabians and Kurds. Iraq’s Arab population (who make up between 75 and 80% of the population) is divided between Sunni Muslims and the more numerous Shia. These groups, however, are for the most part ethnically and linguistically homogenous, and — as is common throughout the region — both value family relations strongly. Kurds (who make up 15-20% of the population in Iraq) are thought to be the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, following Arabs, Turks, and Persians. There are important Kurdish minorities in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria, and Iraq’s Kurds are concentrated in the relatively inaccessible mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, which is roughly contiguous with Kurdish regions in those other countries 5 . Kurds constitute a separate and distinctive cultural group. They are mostly Sunni Muslims who speak one of two dialects of the Kurdish language, an Indo-European language closely related to Modern Persian. They have a strong tribal structure and distinctive costume, music, and dance. Other smaller ethic groups are Turkmen, Assyrian, Shabak, and Yazidi 6 . BELIEF: Iraq is predominantly a Muslim country, with 99% of the population following the official religion. It is estimated that of these, between 55-60% is Shia, and 40% is Sunni 7 . Largely for political reasons, the government has not maintained careful statistics on the relative proportion of the Sunni and Shia populations. Shia are almost exclusively Arab (with some Turkmen and Kurds), while Sunnis are divided mainly between Arabs and Kurds but include other smaller groups, such as Azerbaijanis and Turkmen 8 . POLITICAL SITUATION: In recent times, Iraq has suffered from cycles of warfare, a growing refugee crisis, crippling sectarianism, and the violent spread of the self-styled Islamic State 3 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html 4 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html 5 https://www.britannica.com/place/Iraq/Arabs 6 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html 7 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html 8 https://www.britannica.com/place/Iraq/Arabs#toc22940