Sunni Islam in Iraq

A 2003 CIA Factbook map which shows the area mostly inhabited by Sunni Muslim Arabs in light orange.

Sunni Islam in Iraq (Arabic: الإسلام السني في العراق) is the second-largest sect of Islam in Iraq after Shia Islam. The majority of Iraqi Sunni Muslims are Arabs. Iraqi Sunni Muslims mainly inhabit the northern half of Iraq. Sunni Arabs primarily inhabit the Sunni Triangle, Upper Mesopotamia and the desert areas, such as Al-Anbar Governorate in the Arabian Desert and Syrian Desert. The Sunni Kurds inhabit the mountainous Iraqi Kurdistan region.

In 2003, the United States-based Institute of Peace estimated that around 95% of the total population of Iraq were Muslim, of which Sunnis made up around 50-60%.[1] A CIA World Factbook report from 2015 estimates that 40% of the population of Iraq is Sunni Muslim.[2] According to a 2011 survey by Pew Research, 50% of Iraqi Muslims are Sunni.[3] There were about 9 million Sunni Arabs and 4 million Sunni Kurds in Iraq as of 2015.[4]

  1. ^ "Religious Politics in Iraq". United States Institute of Peace. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  2. ^ "CIA World Fact Book". 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
  3. ^ Michael Lipka (2014-06-18). "The Sunni-Shia divide: Where they live, what they believe and how they view each other". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  4. ^ "Minorities in Iraq: Pushed to the brink of existence" (PDF). February 2015.