“The first step of the general census, which is the surveying and counting, is the most important stage of the census and it is very important to conduct it successfully because it contains details and information on the housing sector and household statistics,” Iraqi planning ministry spokesperson Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi told Rudaw.
A total of 30,000 researchers are involved in carrying out the census, according to Hindawi, who affirmed that they are “very well” trained. The process will be spread out across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region over 60 days.
Mahmoud Othman, executive director of the Kurdistan Region’s part of the population census, told Rudaw that 7,000 people will participate in the surveying and counting process, adding that the teams will be trained starting from Sunday for a period of ten days before carrying out the process.
“This is an experiment. We are testing to see if our employees are fully trained according to Iraqi standards and have full knowledge of the surveying and counting process, and the general population census,” Othman said.
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 population census in 1997 counted 19 million Iraqis. A separate count put the population of the Kurdish provinces at 2.8 million. Iraq's total population is now estimated at 51 million.
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 Kurdistan Regional Government (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 had been the ethnicity question. In April, Iraq said it would carry out the census without surveying its citizens on their ethnicities.
