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of Iraq’s population. Many of these people have left Iraq for neigh-
boring countries due to the unrest following the 2003 invasion, the
ongoing civil war, or the conquests of the Islamic State.
Wars and sanctions have affected population growth in Iraq.
During the 1980s, the country’s population growth rate was 3.2
percent per year, but by the early 1990s the figure had slipped
below 2 percent per year as the country’s birth rate dropped. By
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HE
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EOPLE
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Iraq’s largest
concentration of
people is in Bagdad—
home to nearly one in four
Iraqis—and a
narrow strip running south-
east of the capital along
the Tigris River. Few people
live west of the Euphrates.