ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s unemployment rate has declined to 13 percent, while poverty now stands at 17.5 percent, a spokesperson for Baghdad’s planning ministry told Rudaw on Thursday, noting significant disparities across different parts of the country.
Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi said that “the unemployment rate in Iraq has dropped to 13 percent, compared to 16 percent previously,” adding that “the poverty rate has also decreased to 17.5 percent.”
According to Hindawi, Iraq’s southern Muthanna province is the poorest in the country, with a poverty rate of 43.6 percent, followed by central Babil province at 34.4 percent, and southernmost Basra province at 27.9 percent, despite the latter being home to 66 percent of Iraq’s oil reserves.
In contrast, the lowest poverty rates were recorded in the Kurdistan Region, led by Erbil at 5.9 percent, followed by the eastern Sulaimani province at 7.9 percent and the northern Duhok province at 16.5 percent.
Earlier figures released by the ministry in January 2025 showed that poverty in Iraq had fallen from 23 percent in 2023 to 17.6 percent, while unemployment declined from 16.5 percent to 14 percent.
The ministry is set to hold its first scientific conference on unemployment and poverty in Baghdad next week, in coordination with the Kurdistan Region’s education ministry, to “examine the root causes of unemployment and poverty and develop a roadmap based on updated data,” Hindaw said.
Nahro Mohammed contributed to this report from Erbil, Kurdistan Region.