Iraq is home to a diverse mix of ethnic and religious groups. Its population is approximately 55 percent Shia Arab, 20 percent Sunni Arab, and 25 percent Kurdish (Sunni and Shia), with a smattering of Turkmen, Chaldeans, and Assyrian Christians.
Location:
Middle East, bordering Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan and Syria to the west, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, and limited access to the Arabian Gulf.
Area:Total area: 168,754 square miles (sq. mi.)Land area: 166,859 sq. mi.Comparative area (to USA): about the size of California.
Population: 28,945,657
Diversity of Iraq
The Arabs
Jews
Christians
many Jews across the world find deep meaning in the traditions of ancient Babylonia. Judaism's patriarch, Abraham, is said to have been born in the region, in a city called Ur along the banks of the Euphrates River in southern Iraq. One of Judaism's most important legal texts is the Babylonian Talmud, which was written by religious scholars in Babylonia, beginning in the 3rd century AD.
Today, approximately 35 Jews live in Baghdad, and a handful more in the Kurdish-controlled northern parts of Iraq
"Christians are the largest religious minority in Iraq. They are mostly descended from those who did not convert to Islam after the 7th century, and are subdivided between Chaldeans (linked to Catholicism), Nestorians (also called Assyrians), Jacobites and Eastern Orthodox. They are allowed to practice their religion freely
"The Iraqi Arabs descended from a people group cluster called the Levant Arabs. The Levant Arabs originally settled all over the Arabian Peninsula and later migrated to North Africa. They are spread from Israel to Kuwait and as far east as Iran. 'Levant' is a broad term that includes several groups of Arabs: the Iraqi, Jordanian, Palestinian, Arabic Jewish, Chaldean, and Syrian Arabs.
Most scholars consider Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula to be the original Arabs. The Arabian culture was developed by tribes of nomads and villagers who lived in the Arabian Desert for many centuries. It was also from there that Arab migrations began, eventually leading to the expansion of the Arab world...
Today three-fourths of Iraq is Arab."
Mandaens
The Mandaeans are sometimes referred to as being devoted 'to the teachings of John the Baptist. The mandaens in Iraq totaled 16 thousand according to figures of the 1977 census [Iraq]. They are usually treated as a Gnostic sect and some scholars date the beginning of mandaeanism some where in the first three centuries A.D."
The different religious groups in Iraq
Muslims
Iraq's Muslims follow two distinct traditions,Shia and Sunni Islam. Both Sunni and Shia Muslims share the most fundamental Islamic beliefs and articles of faith. The differences between these two main sub-groups within Islam initially stemmed not from spiritual differences, but political ones. Over the centuries, however, these political differences have spawned a number of varying practices and positions which have come to carry a spiritual significance.
Assyrian
The Assyrians were mountainous people mostly from the region of Hakkari, now in Turkish Kurdistan, but some were from Urmiyah in Iran. Their language is Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic. They are Nestorian Christians, headed by a hereditary patriarch..
Like some other Middle Eastern Christians, the Assyrians have been migrating in large numbers to Europe, the US and Australia. Diaspora Assyrians now outnumber those staying in Iraq.
Turkoman
Kurds
"Turkomans, found mostly in the northern and central regions of Iraq, They are the third largest ethnic group in Iraq after Arabs and Kurds. Originally from Central Asia, they began settling in Iraq thousands of years ago in a migration that took place over several hundred years. They have ruled the country six times since establishing their first state in northern Iraq around 600 BC.
"The Kurds are an ethnic group of an estimated 25 million people. They live in the mountainous region covering eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northern Syria and northwestern Iran. Approximately 12 million live in Turkey; another 3.5 million in Iraq, and the rest in Iran and Syria.
The tribal lands of the Kurds, known to inhabitants as Kurdistan, were divided up by colonial powers, Great Britain and France, after World War I. The Kurds became a minority in Turkey, Iraq and Iran. In all three countries, their ambitions for national independence were regarded as threatening. In all three countries, the Kurds advocating independence have faced prosecution for decades.