Middle East–N. Africa
Iraq
Capital: Baghdad
- 46MPopulation
- 45MMuslim
- 98%Muslim share
- $5,500GDP per person
- 15%Unemployment
- 18%In poverty
- 85%Literacy
- 70Life expectancy
- System
- parliamentary republic
- In power
- PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani
- Currency
- dinar
- In the UN since
- 1,945
Life today
Poetry is public life, oud and maqam concerts endure; a fifth lives in poverty after decades of war.
Word on the street
Facebook and TikTok; the shisha cafés of Baghdad are the real newsroom.
Names the world knows
- Zaha Hadid architect
- Ahmed Saadawi novelist
- Naseer Shamma oud master
- Younis Mahmoud footballer
Did you know?
Baghdad's House of Wisdom employed translators who paid in gold by the book's weight.