Iraq Surveys Show Growing Economic Worries
New surveys of people across Iraq show growing economic worries, more support for the new prime minister than the previous leader, and continued sharp divisions along sectarian and ethnic lines.
The data come from telephone surveys with thousands of mobile and land-line phone users, including those in areas controlled by the insurgent group that calls itself the Islamic State.
The Gallup polling organization has been doing surveys in Iraq for 10 years, and a recent study that focused on media usage in the country was commissioned by the U.S. government agency that manages the Voice of America.
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Politics
Some survey questions focused on the performance of two recent Iraqi prime ministers. In 2013, a majority of respondents in southern Iraq, a predominantly Shiite area, expressed confidence in former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But only 13 percent of Iraqi Kurds said he earned their confidence.
Survey data show the new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, is a more popular figure. In December 2014 he earned the confidence of 53 percent of respondents in Iraqi Kurdistan and 76 percent of those in southern Iraq, an 69 percent of those in IS-controlled areas.
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Economic worries
Gallup studies also show a rising number of Iraqis who describe the economic situation poor.
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Iraq Surveys Show Growing Economic Worries