ABSTRACT
The last reliable census that broke down Iraq’s population into ethnic groups took place in 1957. Subsequently, the Ba’ath Party regime systematically manipulated census data to increase the proportion of Arabs at the expense of other ethnicities. As a result, attaching numbers to Iraq’s large number of ethnic and sectarian communities will be a matter of educated speculation until an up-to-date census is conducted. Ethnically, Iraq is approximately 75-80 per cent Arab, 15-20 per cent Kurd, with the remainder a mix of Assyrians, Turkomans, Chaldeans and various other smaller groups (Map 81). The exact number of Turkomans is a source of controversy. Turkoman political leaders claim that there are more than three million Turkomans in Iraq, which would put them at about 10 per cent of the total population. The available evidence does not support this high estimate, however. Opinion poll surveys conducted in Iraq using random sampling techniques suggest that Turkomans comprise no more than 2-3 per cent of the population, and support for ethnic Turkoman political parties in recent elections implies that Turkoman numbers may be as low as 300,000-500,000. Iraq’s Assyrian and Chaldean populations, both primarily Christian by religion, may have numbered up to one million until recently. However, the Christian population, mainly located in volatile northern areas such as Mosul and Kirkuk, has been viciously targeted by insurgent groups and the number of Christians remaining in Iraq may soon diminish to insignifi cant levels.
