ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq on Monday announced the preliminary results for the country’s general census, which put the population at over 45 million. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) revealed the provinces under its administration accounted for 6.3 million of that number.

The preliminary results were announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani in a televised speech, alongside Planning Minister Mohammed Ali Tamim, head of Iraq’s Commission of Statistics and Geographic Information Systems Dhiaa Awad Kadhim, and senior advisor of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Mahdi al-Alaq.

“Iraq’s population has reached 45,407,895, including foreigners and refugees,” said Sudani, “The population distribution shows 70.3 percent residing in urban areas and 29.7 percent in rural areas.”

The preliminary results also showed the male population in the country, 22,784,062, was slightly higher than the female population which stood at 22,623,833.

The number of households in the country is 7,898,588, with the average household size being 5.3 persons. Nearly 89 percent of households are headed by men, while only 11 percent are headed by women.

Iraq’s working age (15-64 years) population was placed at 60 percent of the overall population, those aged below 15 years old accounted for 36 percent, while those aged 65 and older made up less than four percent.

Sudani expressed his gratitude to the tens of thousands of team involved in the census as well as all relevant authorities and institutions for their contributions which led to completing “this significant step in planning for sustainable development, covering Iraq from north to south and east to west.”

Iraq conducted its first population and housing census in nearly four decades last week. A count in 1997 excluded the Kurdistan Region provinces.

KRG Planning Minister Dara Rashid announced during a press conference on Monday that the Region’s population was 6,370,668 according to the data collected during the recent census. Around 84 percent of that number resides in urban areas, while the remaining 16 percent reside in the rural areas.

According to the census preliminary results, there are 1,379,163 households across the Kurdistan Region, with the average household size reaching 4.6 persons.

The male population of the Kurdistan Region was revealed to be 3,200,506, over 30,000 more than the female population which was placed at 3,170,162.

Iraq’s working age (15-64 years) population was placed at 63.7 percent of the overall population, those aged below 15 years old accounted for 31.9 percent, while those aged 65 and older made up 4.4 percent.

The third and final phase of the census began on Sunday and is set to continue up until December 10.