The population is about 5-6 million. The majority of these are Sunni Muslims. There are also significant numbers of Yazidis and Christians. Kurds comprise the ethnic majority in the region while the Turkmen and Assyrian, Chaldean, Armenian and Arabs who particularly reside in the western part of the area make up the rest. The Yazidi or Yezidi (Kurdish: Êzidî) are adherents of a small Middle Eastern religion with ancient origins. ... A Christian is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as the Christ. ... Assyrians are Aramaic-speaking Christians who consider themselves to be indigenous inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and inheritors of the ancient culture of Assyria. ...

Miscellaneous statistics

Ethnic and religious distribution of Iraq.

Population:(2006 est.) Image File history File links Iraq_demography. ... Image File history File links Iraq_demography. ...

Age structure: (2006 est.)

• 0–14 years:
• 15–64 years:
• 65 years and over:

Population growth rate: (2006 est.)

Birth rate: (2006 est.)

Death rate: (2006 est.)

Net migration rate: (2006 est.)

Sex ratios: (2006 est.) Sex ratio by country for total population. ...

• at birth:
• under 15 years:
• 15–64 years:
• 65 years and over:
• total population:

Infant mortality rate: (2006 est.)

• total population:
• male:
• female:

Life expectancy (2006) World map of life expectancy Life expectancy is a statistical measure defined as the expected (mean) survival of human beings based upon a number of criteria such as gender and geographic location. ...

• total population:
• male:
• female:

Total fertility rate: (2006 est.) The (total) fertility rate of a population is the average number of child births per woman. ...

Nationality:
noun: Kurd(s) -- adjective: Kurdish In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ...

Ethnic groups:

Religions:

Languages:
Kurdish(?%), Arabic(?%), (Assyrian (Syriac))(?%) and (Iraqi Turkmen)(?%) The Kurdish language is an Iranian language spoken in the region called Kurdistan, including Kurdish populations in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. ... The Arabic language ( ), or simply Arabic ( ), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew, Amharic and Aramaic. ... Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is a modern Eastern Aramaic or Syriac language. ... The Azerbaijani language, also called Azeri, Azari, Azeri Turkish, or Azerbaijani Turkish, is the official language of Republic of Azerbaijan. ...

Literacy: World literacy rates by country The traditional definition of literacy is the ability to use language–to read, write, listen, and speak. ...

• total population:
• male:
• female: