page_title: Religion in Iraq
section_title: Christianity
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Iraq / Christianity
caption_attribution_description: العربية: مبنى كنسية القديسة تريزا وتقع في السنك في بغداد واشرف على بناؤها المهندس باتريك بيير سنة 1928. هذا المبنى بني عام 1866 ليستبدل مبنى أصغر للكنيسة كان قد بني عام 1721م. English: The Latin Church of Saint Theresa in Baghdad
context_page_description: Religion in Iraq was overwhelmingly Muslim as of 2015, with over 95-98% of the population practicing Islam. Christianity, including Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Assyrian Church of the East, accounted for 1% and other religions made up the remaining 1-4%. Yazidism and religious syncretism practiced by minorities in Iraq includes Mandaeism, Shabakism, and Yarsanism accounts for 1.5%. The Iraqi Jewish community no longer exists aside from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
context_section_description: Christianity was brought to Iraq in 40's AD/CE by Thomas the Apostle, Thaddaeus of Edessa and his pupils Aggagi and Mari. Thomas and Thaddeus belonged to the twelve Apostles. Iraq's indigenous Assyrian people represent roughly 3% of the population (earlier CIA Factbook), mostly living in Northern Iraq, concentrated in the Ninewa and Dahuk governorates. There are no official statistics, and estimates vary greatly. In 1950 Christians may have numbered 10–12% of the population of 5.0 million. They were 8% or 1.4 in a population of 16.3 million in 1987 and 1.5 million in 2003 of 26 million. Emigration has been high since the 1970s. Since the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi Christians have been relocated to Syria in significant but unknown numbers. There has been no official census since 2003, when the Christian population in Iraq numbered 1.2–2.1 million.
  Iraqi Christians are divided into four church bodies:
  "Chaldeans" (Chaldean Catholic Church)
  "Assyrians" or "Nestorian" group (Assyrian Church of the East) and (Ancient Church of the East)
  "West Syriac" or "Jacobite" group (Syriac Orthodox Church)
  "Eastern Orthodox" group (Archdiocese of Baghdad, under jurisdiction of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East)
caption: The Latin Church in Baghdad
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