UNOCHA: Updated humanitarian figures for Iraq

- Population: 27.5 million

- Population growth rate: 2.6 percent

- Life expectancy at birth: 69 years

- Adult literacy rate: 74 percent

- GDP – Official exchange rate: US$ 40.66 billion (2006 est.)

- GDP – Real growth rate: 1.9 percent (2006 est.)

- Inflation rate (consumer products): 64.8 percent (2006 est.)

Full report available from Reliefweb.

WATER AND SANITATION

- Access to water is a priority need to almost 22 percent of IDPs in the 15 central and southern governorates in Iraq(2).

- Hygiene and sanitation is considered a priority need by almost 8 percent of IDPs in Iraq(3).

- Only one in three Iraqi children under the age of five has access to safe drinking water, according to UNICEF(4).

- The ongoing humanitarian crisis and increased displacement continue to place enormous pressure on the existing water and sanitation facilities in Iraq, leaving a large segment of the population with no access to water and, whenever access exists, populations are increasingly at risk of water-borne diseases(5).

HEALTH AND NUTRITION

- Access to healthcare is a priority need to almost 13 percent of surveyed IDPs(6).

- 11 percent of IDPs surveyed cannot access health care(7).

- 34 percent of IDPs surveyed can not access the medications they need(8).

- 48 percent of IDPs surveyed had participated in a vaccination programme(9).

- Immunization coverage of infants with DPT3, OPV3 and measles vaccinations dropped to 78 percent in 2006 from 84 percent in 2005. Insecurity makes mothers reluctant to go to health facilities for preventive essential health services like immunization(10).

Notes:

(1) CIA World Fact Book (2007 estimates)
(2) IOM Emergency Needs Assessment. Bi-weekly report 1 November 2007
(3) Cluster F: IDP Update. 19 September 2007
(4) Report of the Secretary General to the UN Security Council, 15 October 2007
(5) UNICEF: Update for Partners on the Situation of Children in Iraq. August/September 2007
(6) IOM Emergency Needs Assessment. Bi-weekly report 1 November 2007
(7) IOM: Iraq Displacement. 2007 Mid-Year Review.
(8) Cluster F: IDP Update. 19 September 2007
(9) Cluster F: IDP Update. 19 September 2007
(10) WHO: Iraq Annual Report 2006
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