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Iraq's population will exceed 43 million by the end of 2023 if its current birth rate of 1.2 million a year maintains, the country's planning ministry has said.

It comes after the ministry revealed last year that the population had risen to above 40 million people – a significant increase.

Experts have noted that population growth represents an economic challenge.

The figure of 43 million by the end of 2023 is an estimate, said Iraqi planning ministry spokesperson Abdel Zahra Al-Hindawi.

The number could increase but Al-Hindawi doesn't believe it will go down, he told official Iraqi television.

"If the increase in births continues at the same level, we will reach 50 million people in 2030," he said.

He expects the growth rate in the coming years will "tend to decline", explaining that "10 years ago it was three percent and today we are talking about a rate of 2.6 percent".

Iraq is ranked 86th globally for population growth, Al-Hindawi said.

Social affairs researcher Maher Al-Fatlawi said Iraq's population increase was "very dangerous", especially since "successive governments have not put in place remedies and studies to create the appropriate conditions to absorb these increases".

They've not even used the increases as a means of developing the country, Al-Fatlawi added.

Despite having vast oil reserves, Iraq's economic circumstances are poor, with unemployment at 15.5 percent as of last year.

The country also suffered greatly with the rise of the Islamic State group last decade.

The extremist organisation formerly controlled two-fifths of Iraq's territory.