General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20268 min read

Iraq (العراق)

Iraq (العراق) is a republic in Western Asia, lying between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, whose economy, politics, and society are dominated by oil revenues, a young and growing population, and the aftereffects of decades of war. Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, it was occupied by the United Kingdom during World War I and declared a League of Nations mandate under UK administration in 1920¹. Its 2024 census, the first in nearly 40 years, counted 46.1 million people².

Key fact	Detail
Population	46.1 million counted in the November 2024 census, the first full census in nearly 40 years; an unofficial 2009 count estimated 31.6 million²
Life expectancy	73.7 years overall (2024 est.): 71.9 for men, 75.7 for women¹
Oil dependence	In 2025 oil accounted for an estimated 53 percent of real GDP, 88 percent of government revenues, and 91 percent of merchandise exports³
Labor market	Unemployment 13.5 percent and labor force participation 38 percent, both worse than the regional average; people aged 15–29 are nearly 29 percent of the population³
Parliament	329 seats; the November 2025 election gave caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's coalition the largest bloc, 46 seats, short of a majority⁴
Freedom ratings	Freedom House 2025 score 31/100, Not Free (Political Rights 16/40, Civil Liberties 15/60)⁵
Climate finance need	The World Bank's Country Climate and Development Report (2022) estimates $233 billion in total investments needed by 2040 for climate adaptation and mitigation while closing the development gap⁶

Geography and population

Iraq's landscape is largely desert, featuring winters ranging from mild to cool and summers that are hot, dry, and cloudless; in the north, the mountainous areas bordering Iran and Turkey see winters cold enough for snowfall that is at times heavy, and when this snow thaws in early spring it can at times produce widespread flooding across the country's center and south.⁷ Most Iraqis live in the country's northern, central, and eastern regions, where the biggest urban clusters line the Tigris and Euphrates; the west and south, by contrast, are sparsely settled or empty⁷.

The 2024 census gave detailed breakdowns for federal Iraq and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north. In federal Iraq, 70.2 percent of the population lives in urban areas, while urban areas hold 84.6 percent of the Kurdish region's population. Employment was higher in the Kurdish region, with 46 percent of the population economically active against 41.6 percent in federal areas, and primary school enrollment was 93 percent there versus 88 percent in Iraq overall; federal Iraq showed higher rates of home ownership and access to potable water and state electricity². Planning Minister Mohammed Tamim presented the count as a basis for fairer distribution of resources across provinces².

History

Iraq passed from Ottoman rule to British occupation in World War I and to a League of Nations mandate under UK administration in 1920¹. After Iraq's 1990 incursion into Kuwait, the nation entered a stretch of unrest while it worked to establish a government representing its people.⁸ Decades of armed conflict followed, and the conflict that displaced much of the country's north and west ended in 2017; since then almost 5 million people have returned to their homes, while 1.1 million remain internally displaced⁹.

Politics and government

Elections and coalition bargaining. Iraq holds regular, competitive elections in which its partisan, religious, and ethnic groups generally enjoy representation, but democratic governance is impeded in practice by corruption, militias operating outside the bounds of the law, and weak formal institutions⁵. Parliamentary elections held on 11 November 2025 produced no bloc with a decisive majority¹⁰. The Supreme Federal Court ratified the result on 14 December 2025 after the Independent High Electoral Commission resolved 853 complaints, confirming that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's Reconstruction and Development Coalition won 46 of 329 seats, not enough to assure him a second term⁴. In past elections the largest bloc has often been unable to impose its preferred candidate; in 2021 the Sadrist Movement won the most seats but withdrew after failed government-formation negotiations¹¹. In January 2026 al-Sudani stepped aside to clear the field for former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to two Iraqi officials¹², and in April 2026 parliament elected Nizar Amidi, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's political bureau, as president, defeating Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein of the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party¹³.

Rights and civic space. Human Rights Watch's World Report 2025 recorded increased security and stability in 2024 after decades of armed conflict, alongside impunity for serious crimes, shrinking civic space, flaws in the justice system, and discriminatory legal norms disproportionately affecting LGBT people, women, children, and minorities¹⁴. In 2024 the parliament passed a law criminalizing same-sex relationships, and conservative politicians proposed amendments allowing Iraqis to turn to religious courts on family law questions, which critics said would permit the marriage of children as young as nine and weaken divorce protections for women; thousands of women protested the proposals⁵. At its January 2025 Universal Periodic Review, UN member states criticized Iraq's use of the death penalty after unfair trials, restrictions on free expression and assembly, and impunity for abuses by state-affiliated armed groups¹⁵.

Economy

Iraq runs a highly oil-dependent economy that is import-dependent for most sectors, with fiscal sustainability subject to oil price fluctuations and persistent challenges of corruption, informal markets, banking access, and political fragility¹⁶. In the first nine months of 2025 GDP declined 2.4 percent year on year, driven by a 5.7 percent contraction in oil GDP as production was constrained by OPEC+ limits; non-oil GDP growth slowed to 1.5 percent because of water and electricity shortages and a liquidity crunch caused by falling oil revenues³. The conflict in the Middle East and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which most of Iraq's oil transits, significantly reduced export capacity and slowed production³.

The labor market carries a large youth cohort into limited job creation: young people aged 15–29 are nearly 29 percent of the population, and preferences for public-sector employment meet a private sector of limited size and absorptive capacity³. Agriculture is the largest non-oil contributor to GDP and is wholly dependent on the water sector¹⁷. International financing has targeted diversification and connectivity: in June 2025 the World Bank approved $930 million for the Iraq Railways Extension and Modernization Project, intended to improve freight capacity between Umm Qasr Port on the Persian Gulf and Mosul¹⁸. As of October 2025 the World Bank portfolio comprised 10 active projects with a total commitment of $2.24 billion³.

Security

The Iraqi Security Forces focus primarily on internal and border security and conduct counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations against ISIS, particularly in northern and western Iraq, including securing the border with Syria; Kurdish Security Forces are also active against ISIS¹⁶. Two international military task forces assist at the Iraqi government's request: NATO Mission Iraq, an advisory, training, and capacity-building mission established in 2018, and the US-led Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, which transitioned from a combat role to an advise, assist, and enable role in December 2021¹⁶. In September 2024, US and Iraqi officials reached an agreement on a US military withdrawal in 2026⁵.

Climate and water

Iraq is among the countries most exposed to climate change, facing rising temperatures, water scarcity, and extreme weather events alongside the financial vulnerabilities of an oil-dependent economy³. The World Bank's Country Climate and Development Report describes a development-climate-fragility nexus and advocates energy transition to tackle the energy sector's inefficiencies and action on the water-agriculture-poverty nexus¹⁹. The government has said it aims to supply one-third of the country's electricity demand from renewable energy instead of fossil fuel, and climate impacts on water and agriculture have raised imports of staples such as wheat that Iraq once produced heavily²⁰. Despite vast oil and gas reserves, Iraqis lack adequate electricity for basic needs, and gas flaring and uncontrolled industrial pollution pose major environmental challenges¹⁷.

References

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026