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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iraq
Index
Size: Area of Iraq variously cited as between 433,970
(excluding Iraqi half of Iraq-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone shared
with Saudi Arabia, consisting of 3,522 square kilometers) and
437,393 square kilometers.
Topography: Country divided into four major regions:
desert in west and southwest; rolling upland between upper
Euphrates and Tigris rivers; highlands in north and northeast;
and alluvial plain in central and southeast sections.
SOCIETY
Population: Preliminary 1987 census figures give total
of 16,278,000, a 35 percent increase over 1977. Annual rate of
growth 3.1 percent; about 57 percent of population in 1987 under
twenty.
Religious and Ethnic Divisions: At least 95 percent of
population adheres to some form of Islam. Government gives number
of Shias (see Glossary)
as 55 percent but probably 60 to 65
percent is reasonable figure. Most Iraqi Shias are Arabs. Almost
all Kurds, approximately 19 percent of population, are
Sunnis (see Glossary),
together with about 13 percent Sunni Arabs. Total
Arab population in 1987 given by government as 76 percent.
Remainder of population small numbers of Turkomans, mostly Sunni
Muslims; Assyrians and Armenians, predominantly Christians;
Yazidis, of Kurdish stock with a syncretistic faith; and a few
Jews.
Languages: Arabic official language and mother tongue
of about 76 percent of population; understood by majority of
others. Kurdish official language in As Sulaymaniyah, Dahuk, and
Irbil governorates. Minorities speaking Turkic, Armenian, and
Persian.
Education: Rapidly growing enrollment in tuition-free
public schools. Six years of primary (elementary), three years of
intermediate secondary, and three years of intermediate
preparatory education. Six major universities, forty-four teacher
training schools and institutes, and three colleges and technical
institutes, all government owned and operated. Dramatic increases
since 1977 in numbers of students in technical fields (300
percent rise) and numbers of female primary students (45 percent
rise). Literacy variously estimated at about 40 percent by
foreign observers and 70 percent by government. Academic year
1985-86: number of students in primary schools 2,812,516;
secondary schools (general) 1,031,560; vocational schools
120,090; teacher training schools and institutions 34,187;
universities, colleges, and technical institutes 53,037.
Health: High incidence of trachoma, influenza, measles,
whooping cough, and tuberculosis. Considerable progress has been
made in control of malaria. Continuing shortage of modern trained
medical and paramedical personnel, especially in rural areas and
probably in northern Kurdish areas.
Data as of May 1988
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