Arabs account for about 80 per cent of the population, but they have long lived cheek by jowl with substantial minorities. These include Kurds, Turkmen – the descendants of the Ottoman armies – Assyrian Christians, Yazidi and Shabaks, alongside Bedouin and Marsh Arabs.

Prior to 2003, minorities made up as much as 15 per cent of Iraq’s population. Major cities such as Mosul and Kirkuk in the north are particularly ethnically and religiously mixed, even if the insecurity of the post-2003 period has led to a reduction in this diversity. Many Christians have fled Mosul and found refuge in the Kurdistan Regional Government area. In Erbil’s Christian quarter, Ainkawa, the population has increased significantly as a result of this movement. Many Arabs who fled Baghdad in the mid-2000s, when sectarian violence was at its peak, have also settled in the Kurdish north. 

Baghdad has always had large numbers of Kurds, although the capital’s cosmopolitan mix has declined in the past 10 years. By 2006, Baghdad had become the main theatre for a violent confessional contest, as communities were evacuated from neighbourhoods in which they were not a majority. Shia militias effectively removed most of the Sunnis to a western strip of the capital.

According to Iraqi government statistics provided in 2010, 97 per cent of Iraq’s population is Muslim, with Shia Muslims constituting a 60 to 65 per cent majority. The Shia community is mainly Arab and based in the south, but also includes Turkmen and Kurds. Sunni Muslims are estimated to constitute 32 to 37 per cent of the population.

Culturally, Iraq is more conservative than in the past. Many Sunni Arab residents reflect fondly on the old Baghdad, with its bookshops, restaurants and parties. In those days, Iraq had a reputation as the best educated of the Arab countries.

The removal of Saddam Hussein and the resulting emergence of the long-suppressed Shia population have changed the character of the country, with the increased conservatism of public life reflecting this shift. Although Kurdistan is more liberal – in particular the second city of Suleimaniyah – there is also a growing conservatism within the Kurdish community. In 2012, there were attacks on shops serving alcohol in the northern city of Dohuk.