ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Erbil has changed dramatically over the lifetime of Mala Ali Haji Ibrahim, now in his late seventies and living in the neighbourhood of Hana City in central Erbil.
Ibrahim studied religion with the intention of becoming a Mullah, but pursued a 39-year career in the telephone industry after the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown by Abdelkarim Qasim in 1958.
According to Haji Ibrahim, Hana City was once an area for hunting and vegetation. “This place was all empty, I have killed deer, hunted rabbits, and even had greyhounds,” he said, noting that people used to plant vegetables around the land.
Now, it is a highly populated part of the expanding city and the life he once led there seems unimaginable.
According to data by the statistics office for the year 2020, given to Rudaw on Tuesday, the population of the Kurdistan Region stood at 6,171,000 in 2020.
The latest report of the statistics office for population growth assessments estimates that this is expected to reach 8.8 million by 2040.
Sirwan Mohammed, head of the Kurdistan Region statistics office, told Rudaw’s Dlnia Rahman that these figures actually represent a slowing of population growth, compared to previous years.
There has been an increase in the population across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, but the percentage differs. Iraq’s population grew by 2.5 percent last year, while the Kurdistan Region is expanding at a rate of only 2.1 percent, Mohammed told Rudaw.
Indeed, the Kurdistan Region’s population growth rate is not only lower than Iraq’s, but it is expected to decrease by 2040.
Saman Izzadin, head of Erbil’s statistics office, told Rudaw English on Wednesday that the size of an average family in Erbil has decreased from six to four members per family.
Izzadin attributed the expansion of the city to factors including the economy, and changes in the way of living. “People used to live with their parents after they got married, but now everyone wants their own house,” he explained.
“Erbil was made up of around seventy neighborhoods in 2003; now it’s close to 150 neighborhoods,” he added, noting that a lot of Arabs have also moved into the city, as well as changes in the city to markets.
“The population has moved from living inside the city to outside, with the centre of the city becoming a market,” he explained.
For the first time, Iraq’s population exceeded 40 million this year, the country’s planning ministry said in January – with 40 percent of the population under the age of 15. By 2050, the country’s population has been projected to double to 80 million.
Mohammed warned in 2018 that slow population growth could put the Kurdistan Region on the back foot on issues like its share of the federal budget.
More recently, others - including Iraq’s President Barham Salih - have warned of the economic and environmental pressures that a burgeoning population will face.
Iraq’s predicted expansion stands in contrast to the current projected population trend of the Kurdistan Region.
Reporting by Dlnia Rahman
