Geography Quiz Arcade

Iraq 🇮🇶

Iraq is a country in Asia with a population of 44,496,122. Its capital is Baghdad. The official currency is IQD, and the main languages are Arabic, Kurdish.

Quick facts

  • Capital: Baghdad
  • Continent: Asia
  • Population: 44,496,122
  • Area: 438,317 km²
  • Density: 102 people per km²
  • Currency: IQD
  • Languages: Arabic, Kurdish
  • ISO code: IQ

Where Iraq sits

Iraq 🇮🇶 is one of 48 countries in Asia, with its capital at Baghdad. It covers 438,317 square kilometres — 58th in the world — and is home to about 44,496,122 people, 35th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Iraq compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Iraq sits closest to Algeria and Argentina. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Morocco and Uzbekistan.

At 102 people per square kilometre it is somewhat above the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by population than by area, so it is more crowded than its size alone suggests.

Arabic is an official language in 25 countries here, among them Algeria, Bahrain, Chad and Comoros, and 20 others. The IQD is used by Iraq and no one else.

To see Iraq next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Iraq

Mesopotamia means 'land between the rivers', the Tigris and the Euphrates, and Baghdad sits on the Tigris. B for Baghdad, B for 'Between the rivers'.

The flag of Iraq: red, white and black, with green writing

🇮🇶 The flag is three horizontal stripes of red, white and black, with the phrase 'Allahu Akbar' ('God is great') written in green Arabic script on the white stripe. Red, white and black, with green, are Pan-Arab colours. The current version of the flag was adopted in 2008.

Region and neighbours

Iraq is a country in Western Asia, at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, covering most of ancient Mesopotamia. It shares land borders with 6 countries: Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.

Three facts about Iraq

  1. Ancient Mesopotamia, most of which lies in modern Iraq, is where some of the earliest known writing, called cuneiform, was developed.
  2. The ruins of Babylon, south of Baghdad, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  3. Iraq has only a very short coastline, on the Persian Gulf near the city of Basra.

Sources: Wikipedia: Iraq, Wikipedia: Flag of Iraq, Wikipedia: Mesopotamia, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Iraq

Quizzes that include Iraq

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Iraq those are:

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Read more about Iraq

Nearby countries

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Iraq flag?

The flag of Iraq is three horizontal stripes of red, white and black, with the phrase 'Allahu Akbar' ('God is great') written in green Arabic script on the white stripe. Red, white and black, with green, are Pan-Arab colours. The current version of the flag was adopted in 2008.

Which countries border Iraq?

Iraq shares land borders with Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.

How can I remember the capital of Iraq?

Mesopotamia means 'land between the rivers', the Tigris and the Euphrates, and Baghdad sits on the Tigris. B for Baghdad, B for 'Between the rivers'.