ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Sulaimani province recorded the lowest average household size across Iraq in a recently conducted pilot census, a planning ministry official said on Friday.
Iraq started a two-week pilot census on May 31, and ended on Thursday, in preparation for the long-overdue full count set for November.
Over 1,000 enumerators participated in the pilot census. The census was carried out in 86 areas, 41 of which were in cities and 45 in villages, according to data from Iraq's planning ministry sent to Rudaw.
“According to the data from the pilot census, the average number of members per household was six. Sulaimani province recorded the lowest average, with four members per household," Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi, spokesman for the Iraqi planning ministry, told Rudaw.
Hindawi said that the enumerators collected data from 45,277 families, and it took three days to gather information from each family.
The collected data shows that 91 percent of the families were headed by men, while 9 percent were headed by women. Women constituted 49.9 percent of the population according to the pilot census, while men made up 50.1 percent, according to Hindawi.
Iraq will carry out a census in November. It will be the first general population count conducted since 1997 and the first to include the Kurdistan Region’s provinces since 1987.
The latest census in 1997 counted 19 million Iraqis. A separate count for the Kurdistan Region put the population of the three Kurdish provinces at 2.8 million. The country’s population is now estimated at 43 million.
The questionnaire will be conducted digitally and the information will be stored in a data center – the first in Iraq. The authorities have said that this will help to realize the results quicker and allow the relevant departments to analyze the data.
According to the Iraqi planning ministry, the questionnaire will include a housing census along with counts of the population, family members, social status, and other information.
Iraq has been discussing carrying out a new census for years, a move that should contribute to the resolution of historic problems like Baathist-era Arabization, the status of disputed Kirkuk, which is claimed by both the federal government and the KRG, and the size of the KRG’s share of federal funds.
A census planned for 2020 was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A key obstacle to conducting a census between Baghdad and Erbil has been the ethnicity question. Last month, Iraq said it will carry out the census without surveying its citizens on their ethnicities.
Hastyar Qadir contributed to this report
