Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning, Mohammed Ali Tamim, announced Wednesday the start of a trial census across all provinces, including Kurdistan Region (Erbil, Dohuk, Sulaymaniyah), set for next Friday.
Officials say the census will avoid sensitive topics like ethnicity and focus on religion.
If successful, the government plans to launch an official census on Nov. 20, the first in 27 years since 1997.
The previous census, more than 25 years ago, didn’t include Kurdistan due to political issues under Saddam Hussein's rule.
Since 2005, Iraq has tried to conduct a census, but it faced setbacks, mainly due to political tensions over areas like Kirkuk, disputed between Arabs and Kurds.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Tamim thanked families and local communities for their cooperation with researchers in the trial census, stressing the importance of keeping data private.
He assured that data collection would follow strict privacy standards and only be used for development purposes. The trial will start in specific areas across all provinces on Friday, covering 86 localities with 764 researchers involved.
According to the minister, the trial will include various localities in Baghdad, Basra, Nineveh, and others, with researchers wearing uniforms and carrying tablets to transmit data securely.
Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, a spokesperson for the Planning Ministry, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the November census is solely for development purposes and won’t ask about ethnicity or religion.
He said the focus is on understanding people’s living conditions to address them, not on demographics like Arab or Kurdish populations.
Al-Hindawi stressed that international standards suggest avoiding controversial topics in population surveys.
