The People

Iraq's population includes several hundred thousand nomads. The country had a population density of 71 persons per square mile (27 per km 2). Most of the Iraqis live in small villages. About 80 per cent of Iraq's people are Arabs, and 15 per cent are Kurds. The rest are largely Iranians, Turkomans, Assyrians, Armenians, Palestinian refugees, and Asiatic Indians.

Arabic is the predominant and official language. Kurds speak several dialects of a western Iranian language. Many other languages and dialects are also spoken in Iraq.

More than 90 per cent of the Iraqis are Muslims, followers of Islam, the country's official religion. The majority of the Muslims are members of the Shiite branch of Islam, the minority of the Sunnite branch. There are small communities of Jews and Christians, most of whom belong to such Eastern groups as the Nestorians and Jacobites.

Primary education begins at age six and lasts six years. Secondary schooling is in two stages—a three-year intermediate course followed by a three-year preparatory course. All schools are under government control. Universities at Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul are the leading institutions of higher learning. Iraq's literacy rate is about 25 per cent.