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Iraq retail & payments in numbers (2026): statistics shops should know

Sourced, dated figures on Iraq's people, internet, platforms, payments and connectivity, with charts and a downloadable CSV, for anyone running or selling to Iraqi shops.

The Dashing team4 min read

Every number on this page has a source and a date, and the whole table is one CSV: iraq-retail-statistics-2026.csv (CC BY 4.0; cite "Dashing, Iraq retail & payments in numbers 2026"). We refresh it quarterly and note what changed at the bottom. Company claims are marked as claims.

People and phones

Iraq: population, internet users, social identities and mobile connections in millions

  • 47.3 million people, median age 20.8, 72% urban (DataReportal, October 2025). The World Bank's 2025 estimate is 47.0 million.
  • 39.6 million internet users, 83.8% of the population, up 4.7% in a year. The World Bank's own series puts 2024 internet use at 81.5%.
  • 50.8 million mobile connections, 108% of the population; 86.2% of them are 3G/4G/5G.
  • A shop's customers are online, on a phone, and young. The owner is too.

Where Iraqis actually are

Platform users in Iraq in millions: TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat

  • TikTok 40.1 million (18+, by the platform's own methodology, which exceeds the adult population), YouTube 24.7 million, Instagram 21.5 million, Facebook 20.8 million, Snapchat 19.3 million (DataReportal, October 2025).
  • WhatsApp does not publish numbers, but it is the business channel: receipts, statements, orders and complaints move on it. That is why Dashing sends receipts and statements as WhatsApp links rather than email.

Money: cash first, cards rising

Retail e-payments on Iraqi local cards, Q3 2024 vs Q3 2025, in billion IQD

  • Retail electronic payments on local cards reached 2,984 billion IQD in Q3 2025 (about $2.3 billion), from 2,111 billion a year earlier, +41% (Central Bank of Iraq, reported by Iraq Business News, December 2025).
  • Only 30.2% of adults had a financial account in 2024 (World Bank Global Findex). Cash is still the default at the counter; cards and wallets are a fast-growing minority.
  • Qi Card, the largest local card scheme, claims 11 million+ users and 43,000 POS terminals (company figures via International Finance).
  • Since January 2025, POS devices are mandatory in Iraq's roughly 17,000 pharmacies (Ministry of Health with the Pharmacists' Syndicate, reported by Jummar), the first sector where "do you take card?" stopped being a question.
  • Practical consequence for software: a cashier in Iraq must take cash with change, card, and wallet payments (Zain Cash, Qi) on the same sale and book the settlement correctly; it must not assume a bank feed (Iraqi banks publish no open API).

Adults with a financial account in Iraq, 2024

Connectivity you can predict

  • More than 80 internet shutdowns in the two years to May 2025, nearly all ordered during school exams, typically 06:00–08:00 on exam days with a second wave in late August–September (Internet Society Pulse; NetBlocks).
  • Add everyday power and line cuts, and "offline" is a requirement for anything that runs a counter. How an offline cashier actually works.

The economy the shop sits in

  • GDP $254 billion (2025), $5,410 per person (World Bank). Oil dominates exports; retail is where households actually spend.
  • Prices are quoted in whole dinars, in practice in multiples of 250, the smallest note that circulates. Two-decimal accounting is noise here; Dashing keeps the books in whole dinars and prices quotes in dollars when needed.
  • No general VAT and no e-invoicing exist in Iraq today; software built around Saudi or Egyptian tax authorities carries workflows nobody here needs.

What this means if you run a shop

  1. Your customers will find you on TikTok, YouTube and Facebook and talk to you on WhatsApp; put the WhatsApp number on the receipt.
  2. Expect to accept cards and wallets more every quarter; choose a system that books them without a separate spreadsheet.
  3. Plan for the exam-season shutdowns like you plan for the electricity: the till must keep selling.
  4. Keep the books in dinars; show the dollar; round to 250.

Changes

  • 2026-09-14, first edition.

Sources

This article is also available in العربية

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