Distillers Country guides / Iraq
Iraq
A one-page guide to Iraq for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Baghdad
- Official languages
- Arabic, Kurdish
- Currency
- Iraqi dinar (IQD)
- Time zone
- UTC+3 (AST)
- Area
- 435,050 km²
People
- Population
- 47.0 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 2.1% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 69.9%
- Aged under 15
- 36.0%
- Aged 65 and over
- 3.4%
- Life expectancy
- 72.4 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$254.4 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$5,410 (2025)
- Economic growth
- -2.16% (2025)
- Inflation
- 0.3% (2025)
Climate
Hot arid with subtropical influence. Summer temperatures average above 40 C for most of the country and often exceed 48 C; winter daytime maxima roughly 5-10 C. Most places get under 250 mm of rain a year, mostly in winter; northern mountains have cold, snowy winters.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Prohibited
- Legal drinking age
- 21 for on- and off-premise sales of all beverages (pre-2023 ban) (WHO 2018 country profile, status 2016: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/country-profiles/substances-abuse/IRQ.pdf)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 0.66 litres of pure alcohol (2022)
- What people drink
- Beer 71%, wine 2%, spirits 26%, other 1% (2016)
- Traditional drinks
- Arak (anise-flavoured distilled spirit), Beer, Cusa masqool (fermented goat's milk, Kurdistan)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia - Iraq; Wikipedia - Alcohol in Iraq; WHO country profile IRQ. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.