Iraq's population represents a wide spectrum of religious and ethnic groupings. Most Iraqis are Arabs and live along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, or on the fertile plain between the rivers. Bedouins roam vast deserts in the west and south.

The Yezidi Kurds of Iraq embracing Islam together with their existing traditions in about 750 A.D. they began to come together as one people group under the leadership if Shaikh Adi who was worshipped as a God.

More than 90% of the Behdini speaking Kurds in Iraq are Sunni Muslim, but in reality most practice superstitious folk Islam. Some Northern Kurds are involved in the Yezidi religion, which is a complex pre-Islamic belief possibly related to Zoroastrianism.

Exact estimates of the Kurdish population is difficult and contentious, in some countries it is politically beneficial to minimize their numbers, while many Kurdish political groups feel it necessary to exaggerate their numbers.