Iraq planning minister to visit Egypt for counsel on national census scheduled for 2020
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Ministry of Planning on Monday said it had begun “technical procedures” for the long-overdue national census that includes the Kurdistan Region and is planned for late 2020.
The statement came from Minister of Planning, Nouri Sabah al-Dulaimi, quoted by al-Sabah paper. Dulaimi is at the head of a recently-formed high committee tasked with overseeing the massive project.
The minister said that he would soon visit Egypt “to learn from its experience” to “succeed with the census.” He also affirmed that his ministry is “determined” to conduct the campaign on schedule, indicating that it would include all parts of the country.
Iraq’s last census was held in 1997 and did not include the Kurdistan Region. More recent counts generally estimate population based on statistics provided by the national food ration program and have often been incomplete in disputed territories.
In January, Dulaimi first announced the census would begin in 2020, adding preparations had started “to provide all the local and international capabilities for the success” of the massive project.
In early March, the Supreme Council for Population held a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and discussed preparations for the planned project in the fall of 2020.
The ambitious project will prove challenging for the Iraqi government, as some 1.8 million people remain displaced from their homes. Since the last official count, the population is believed to have exceeded 38 million.
It is not clear whether the census will include—except for the internally displaced—about four million Iraqis who have fled the country over the past few years.
Lack of reliable statistics has fueled discord between rival populations claiming majorities in various regions of Iraq, most notably in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, adding to the difficulty of addressing fundamental disagreements.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) previously announced that an agreement between Erbil and Baghdad to conduct the census had been reached, for which 50 billion dinars, almost $42 million, had been allocated in the 2019 national budget.
Editing by Nadia Riva