Iraq - Sulaymaniyah Urban Profiling Exercise

This exercise was one of three collaborative profiling exercises were conducted in 2015/2016 with the aim to provide comprehensive analyses of the displacement situations in urban out of camp areas in the Governorates of Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The profiling exercises provided a comparative analysis between three target groups: IDPs, refugees and the host community.

The profiling took a mixed methods approach, entailing qualitative and quantitative components. The quantitative component comprised a sample-based household survey targeting IDPs, refugees and the host community and were carried out by the Statistics Office in each Governorate: Erbil Statistics Directorate, Duhok Statistics Office and Sulaymaniyah Statistics Office. Approximately 1,200 households were sampled in each Governorate, equally distributed between the three population groups. The Kurdistan Regional Statistics Office (KRSO) calculated the sample size as well as the data weights that were applied to the findings.

Iraq-KRI (Sulaymaniyah) profiling exercise of urban/out-of-camp IDPs, Syrian refugees, and host populations with data collected June 2016 (report published September 2016). The exercise included a household survey administered to a sample of 1,201 households (401 IDP, 401 refugee and 399 host community households). Extrapolated results significant at 95% confidence level when comparing population groups; 90% confidence level for geographical strata.

Stratification: The sample was stratified by the three population groups and the following geographic strata:

• Sulaymaniyah district centre: hosting the largest number of IDPs and refugees
• Periphery district centres: all the district centres surrounding the Sulaymaniyah centre with a relevant population of IDPs or refugees
• Kalar and Kifri district centres: areas that have high priority status for humanitarian interventions.

Baseline: Population figures for the host community and IDPs were facilitated by the Sulaymaniyah Statistics Office based on an internal census carried out in 2015, which included IDPs pre- and post-2014; figures for refugees were facilitated by UNHCR.

The population baseline estimates for the urban areas in Sulaymaniyah Governorate were the following: 1,784,920 host persons; 252,757 IDPs; 22,786 refugees.

Limitations: Results at the district level are not statistically significant due to insufficient sample sizes in a majority of districts. Therefore, analysis by location should not be done by district but only by the three geographic strata (the Sulaymaniyah District Centre, Periphery district centres, and Kalar and Kifri). Limitation: Results at the district level are not statistically significant due to insufficient sample sizes in a majority of districts, thus providing results with a margin of error larger than the minimum standard of 10%. Therefore, results are not displayed disaggregated by district in the data analysis, but grouped in the three strata described above (the Sulaymaniyah District Centre, Periphery district centres, and Kalar and Kifri).

In some cases, however, some figures divide the periphery district centres into two categories: on the one hand, the periphery districts with a large influx of displaced people and, on the other hand, the periphery districts with a smaller influx of displaced people. This facilitates a more practical and deeper analysis, but it must be taken into account that the margin of error for these two sub-groups is still slightly higher than the minimum standard of 10%.