Asia
To which language should you translate to localize in Iraq?
What the 150 top websites do
Of the top 150 website (Global by design ranking):
- 45/150 translate into English.
- 19/150 translate into Arabic.
If you need others information, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data
Overview
Language
Official languages
Arabic, Kurdish.
T-index
0.15%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Recognized regional languages
Suret (Assyrian) and Turkish/Turkmen.
English
High proficiency (EF) – 106 of 113 countries/regions in the world- 11/13 position in Middle East.
Demography
Capital: Baghdad
Currency: Iraqi dinar
Population: 44.49 mln
Population density: 100/km2
Economy
GDP: 264.18 billion USD (2022)
GDP per capita: 5,937.2 USD (2022)
Exports: $123 billion (2022)
Statistics
Internet users: 78.7% penetration, 36.22 million
Unemployment rate: 15.3% (2022)
Urbanisation: 71% (2022)
Literacy: 86% (2017)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals and dot as decimal separator.
Date format: dd/mm/yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00964
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$67.1 billion (2022). Refined Petroleum ($7.81B), Broadcasting Equipment ($3.76B), Cars ($3.4B), Jewellery ($3.01B), and Rolled Tobacco ($1.29B), importing mostly from United Arab Emirates ($21.2B), China ($14B), Turkey ($13.7B), India ($2.45B), and South Korea ($1.15B).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 15.8% have an account with a financial institution
• 1.6% have a credit card
• 4.8% have a mobile money account
• 1% makes online purchases
Exports
$123 billion (2022). Crude Petroleum ($111B), Refined Petroleum ($9.19B), Gold ($1.03B), Petroleum Coke ($770M), and Petroleum Gas ($388M), exporting mostly to India ($38.8B), China ($34B), United States ($10.3B), South Korea ($8.21B), and Greece ($6.27B).
Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is low (rated 44.7 out of 100). Ranked 17th out of 20 Middle Eastern and North African countries. Ranked 172nd out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datarepor
Service Imports (2019)
Service Exports (2019)
Source: OEC
Trade balance of goods from 2012 to 2022
Source: Statista
Historical Data Trade Imports
The following section uses historical trade data imports from partners of Iraq.
Historical Data Trade Exports
The following section uses historical trade data exports from partners of Iraq.
Source: OEC
The Top Export Opportunities for Iraq by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product by showing only products that Iraq is not specialized in.
Iraq's Most Complex Exports
The Product Complexity Index (PCI) measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters.
Source: OEC
Iraq's Most Specialized Products
Specialization is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), an index that takes the ratio between Iraq observed and expected exports in each product.
Source: OEC
Market Growth Imports (2019)
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start importing that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Market Growth Exports (2019)
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start exporting that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Source: OEC
Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)
Source: WorldBank
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language
Arabic
Information channels
There are hundreds of publications and scores of radio and TV stations. But political and security crises have resulted in an increasingly fractured media scene.
Television is the main medium for news. Many media outlets have political or religious affiliations. For private media, advertising revenues seldom provide a reliable income. The Iraqi Media Network (IMN) is a government holding company for outlets including Al-Iraqiya TV and Republic of Iraq Radio. The autonomous Kurdistan region has its own established media. Freedom of expression is protected by the constitution. But Reporters Without Borders says amid terrorism, political instability and protests, journalists face threats from all sides. Almost all homes have a satellite dish and there are dozens of Iraq-focused satellite TV networks.
The press
Al-Sabah – published by state-run Iraqi Media Network
Al-Zaman – private London-based daily
Al-Mada – Baghdad, private daily
Al-Mashriq – Baghdad, private daily
Television
Al-Iraqiya – state-run
Al-Sharqiya – private, based in Dubai, satellite and terrestrial
Al-Sumaria – private, based in Beirut, satellite and terrestrial
Kurdistan TV – operated by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) from the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq
KurdSat – operated by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) from the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq
Radio
Republic of Iraq Radio – state-run
Voice of Iraq – private, Baghdad
Sumer FM – affilate of Al-Sumaria TV
News agency
National Iraqi News Agency (Nina) – private, English-language pages
Iraqi News – news site, in English
Shafaq News – pro-Kurdish news site, pages in English
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
78.7% penetration, 36.22 million
Share of web traffic by device
77.19% mobile phones, 20% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.68% tablet devices and 0.13% other devices.
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
29.08 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
32.64 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 100%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 77.1%
Most popular web search engines
Google (96.94%), Bing (1.76%), Yandex (0.53%), Petal Search (0.46%), Yahoo! (0.18%), other (0.13%).
Most used social media
Facebook (56.22%), Instagram (21.86%), YouTube (15.63%), Twitter (5.04%), Pinterest (1.07%), Reddit (0.07%), LinkedIn (0.07%), other (0.03%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
70 yrs (2021)
Corruption perceptions Index
Iraq scored 23 out of 100, ranked 157 out of 180 countries worldwide.
Current health expenditure
5.08% of GDP
CO2 emissions
3.8 metric tons per capita
World Happiness Index
Iraq ranked 107 out of 146 countries, with a score of 4.941.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
Photo credit: Bulgac, iStock