Iraq
Demographics
Table:
Historical populations in millions
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1878	2	—
1947	4.8	+1.28%
1957	6.3	+2.76%
1977	12	+3.27%
1987	16.3	+3.11%
1997	22	+3.04%
2009	31.6	+3.06%
2016	37.2	+2.36%
Source: [195][196][197]

Observing the following table concerning 'Iraq', section 'Demographics', summarise the highlighted cells in a single sentence and provide it inside the JSON object {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}.