Iraq census reaches 22 million

Iraq's first census for a decade, carried out last Thursday, showed the country's population has risen sharply to over 22 million, the official Iraq news agency INA reported.

"The supreme committee for the census announced that the Iraq's population has reached 22,017,983 people," INA said.

The committee supervised the census, which took place under a tight curfew. The census put the female population at 11,077,219 outnumbering the male population of 10,940,764, Al Ahrar daily said today October 21.