South Kurdistan population reaches 5.3 million

According to the latest statistics from the census offices in Erbil, Sulaimani and Duhok, the population of Kurdistan has reached 5.3 million.
However, Kurdish officials in the federal government and Kurdistan’s Ministry of Finance say the population increase has not led to an increase in the Kurdistan Region’s budget, even though the budget -- distributed by Baghdad -- is based on population density.
The statistics from the three provinces of the Kurdistan Region shows that, by the end of August 2012, the population had reached 5,299,304.
Mahmood Osman, director of Sulaimani’s statistics office, told Rudaw,“The population increase in Kurdistan is 3.5 percent annually. The population in towns outside the city center is increasing more sharply.”
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