The Kurds in the North and the Shiites in the South make up 82% of the population. The Arabs (e.g., Saddam and his gangsters) make up only 18% of the population> BTW Here's the latest population estimates.
Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5% according to the current CIA Word Factbook.
Hope this helps.
According to a recent mainstream news program (ABC most likely ... can't recall) the Shiites comprised 61% of the population. Today, the Tampa Tribune stated the Shiite majority was 55% of the population. IPS World News stated it was about 60%. According to The State (South Carolina), Ethnic Kurds, who are not Arabs and live mainly in Iraq's north, make up more than 20 percent of Iraq's population. Shiite Muslims are around 65 percent, while Arab Sunnis (who have traditionally held power) make up 10-15 percent of the whole. That was slightly different from what I heard on the mainstream news, but not by much. I guess it depends on who you ask. Maybe I am confused about the Shiites. I was under the impression the Shiites were Persians, rather than Arabs.
Well this may make things even more confusing.
Shiahs and Sunis are major divisions of the Moslem (Muslim) faithful. The descriptors Shiah and Suni are religious rather than ethnic.
Racially most are caucasoid. The major ethnic divisions are Arabic, Mesopotamian, Assyrian, Persian and Kurdish. The largest minor ethnicity are the Turkomans who are believed to have migrated south from central Asia, through Turkey into the region and mantained the acquired Turkish language.