Shafaq News/ The Director of Planning in al-Sulaymaniyah launchesthe population census in all areas of the province, on Sunday.
The Director, Shwan Jabar, further highlighted theimportance of this project in providing accurate data to support governmentplanning and the development of essential services.
He told Shafaq News that the census process “passes through severalbasic stages that focused on counting and numbering.” Field teams have gatheredinformation about houses, streets, neighborhoods, and alleys to create acomprehensive database in preparation for subsequent steps.
“Today marks the beginning of collecting personalinformation for each household, including the number of members, their ages,and basic data. This phase is set to last for three days,” he added.
Regarding the remaining stages, he explained that “onNovember 20 and 21, there will be a review of the information collected in thesecond phase, in addition to recording births and deaths to ensure the databaseis up to date.”
Jabar noted, “After completing these stages, the census willmove to a more detailed phase, which includes questions about the economic,health, and educational status of each household. This phase is scheduled tostart after November 22.”
Citizens were encouraged to cooperate with census teams,urging households to ensure at least one family member is present to facilitatedata collection, as accuracy in data recording is crucial, he confirmed.
Jabar also acknowledged “some limited technical issues”faced by field teams during the first phase, which were related to the system'smain source. However, these issues “were quickly resolved, and the censusprocess resumed smoothly without significant delays.”
The census, scheduled for November 20-21, marks Iraq's firstnationwide count since 1997. It aims to provide a comprehensive populationassessment, including data from the Kurdistan Region and disputed regions. In2022, Iraq's Ministry of Planning estimated the country’s population at over 42million.