910 sq km land: 432,162 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly more than twice the size of Idaho

Land boundaries: total: 3,650 km border countries: Iran 1,458 km, Jordan
181 km, Kuwait 240 km, Saudi Arabia 814 km, Syria 605 km, Turkey 352 km

Coastline: 58 km

Maritime claims: continental shelf: not specified territorial sea: 12 NM

Climate: mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless
summers; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish borders
experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows that melt in early
spring, sometimes causing extensive flooding in central and southern Iraq

Terrain: mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in south
with large flooded areas; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m highest point:
Haji Ibrahim 3,600 m

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur

Land use: arable land: 12% permanent crops: 1% other: 87% (1998 est.)

Irrigated land: 35,250 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards: dust storms, sandstorms, floods

Environment - current issues: government water control projects have
drained most of the inhabited marsh areas east of An Nasiriyah by drying
up or diverting the feeder streams and rivers; a once sizable population
of Shi'a Muslims, who have inhabited these areas for thousands of years,
has been displaced; furthermore, the destruction of the natural habitat
poses serious threats to the area's wildlife populations; inadequate
supplies of potable water; development of Tigris-Euphrates Rivers system
contingent upon agreements with upstream riparian Turkey; air and water
pollution; soil degradation (salination) and erosion; desertification

Environment - international agreements: Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test
Ban signed, but not ratified: Geography - note: strategic location on
Shatt al Arab waterway and at the head of the Persian Gulf

People Iraq

Population: 24,001,816 (July 2002 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 41.1% (male 5,003,755; female 4,849,238)
15-64 years: 55.9% (male 6,794,265; female 6,624,662) 65 years and over:
3% (male 341,520; female 388,376) (2002 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.82% (2002 est.)

Birth rate: 34.2 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)

Death rate: 6.02 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)

Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/f