Iraq went from one city of a million to eight
City population, millions, 2025 vs 2000 (grey), Iraq's ten largest cities. UN estimates, Degree of Urbanisation city definition.
- 1. Egypt is set to outgrow Japan in 2027, then Russia
- 2. In 2025, Suez Canal traffic was under half its record
- 3. Egypt exports more fresh oranges than any other country
- 4. Egypt is the world's biggest wheat buyer
- 5. Saudi Arabia has more desalination capacity than the entire US
- 6. Three in four UAE residents are international migrants
- 7. Only America draws more new foreign projects than the UAE
- 8. Algeria outspends all of sub-Saharan Africa on its military
- 9. Women in MENA now outpace men at university
- 10. Dubai's airport handles more international travellers than Heathrow
- 11. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
- 12. Oil now makes less than a third of Saudi power
- 13. Egypt now owes Russia more than any other government
- 14. Two-thirds of young Jordanian women in the workforce are jobless
- 15. Baghdad's mobile internet overtook Erbil's
- 16. Morocco climbed to second in world fertiliser exports
- 17. Algiers now has North Africa's fastest home internet
- 18. Saudi imports from China now top the Group of Seven
- 19. Syria has lost more stored water than drought-famous Iran
- 20. Chicken gives Egyptians twice the calories beef does
- 21. More young Tunisian men than women neither work nor study
- 22. Egypt tripled its ATMs per adult in ten years
- 23. Saudi Arabia's battery imports grew 46-fold since 2019
- 24. Viet Nam overtook China as Morocco's top smartphone supplier
- 25. Iraq went from one city of a million to eight
Iraqi cities passed a million people between 2000 and 2025: Basra, Mosul, Erbil, Najaf, Kirkuk, Hillah and Karbala.
cities of a million or more in the world in 2025, up from 337 in 2000, half as many again; Iraq's count multiplied by eight.
of the people in Iraq's 38 long-listed cities live in Baghdad, down from 32%: growth now lands in a ring of regional cities.
the numbers & method
| City population (M) | 2000 (grey bar) (M) | |
|---|---|---|
| Baghdad | 6.39 | 4.27 |
| Basra | 2.03 | 0.98 |
| Mosul | 1.67 | 0.79 |
| Erbil | 1.58 | 0.72 |
| Najaf | 1.27 | 0.60 |
| Kirkuk | 1.15 | 0.45 |
| Hillah | 1.06 | 0.29 |
| Karbala | 1.02 | 0.40 |
| Duhok | 0.97 | 0.12 |
| Sulaymaniyah | 0.91 | 0.46 |
Claim types Estimate · Interpretation
Estimate. UN DESA Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (2025 Revision), File 21, city population (thousands), cities defined by the UN Degree of Urbanisation (contiguous dense built-up areas, not administrative city limits, so values differ from national 'city proper' figures), read from the UN file via the progrss vault (GUIDELINES §4.11). Cities joined on UN city code. Iraq, 2000 to 2025 (thousands): Baghdad 4,272 to 6,391; Basra 975 to 2,034; Mosul 792 to 1,665; Erbil 723 to 1,583; Al-Najaf 600 to 1,273; Kirkuk 451 to 1,153; Al Hillah 294 to 1,055; Karbala 398 to 1,023; Duhok 116 to 970; Sulaymaniyah 461 to 908. Cities of 1 million or more: 1 in 2000 (Baghdad), 8 in 2025. Same-method control (§4.12): all UN cities worldwide, 337 of 1 million or more in 2000 and 511 in 2025 (progrss count over the file's cities, values deduplicated). Takeaway 3 is a progrss calculation over the 38 Iraqi cities listed in both 2000 and 2025: 13.43 million to 27.48 million people, Baghdad 31.8% to 23.3%; the UN lists 88 Iraqi cities in 2025, with 31.8 million people. 2025 values are UN estimates, not census counts; years after 2025 in the file are projections and are not used. Commercial use permitted (UN DESA). Interpretation: the second half of takeaway 3.
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