Iraq by numbers: Then and now

Statistics relating to Iraq at the time of the invasion and three years after.

Three years on 133,000 US troops remain in Iraq

Number of Iraqis killed

6,000 – Number of corpses main Baghdad morgue estimatesd it received in 2003.

10,000+ – Number of corpses processed at morgue in 2005.

(Overall death toll remains murky, with estimates ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 or more. By most studies, insurgency-related violence kills twice as many civilians as police and soldiers.)

Number of US troops killed

139 – Number of US troops killed during the initial two months of major hostilities that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.

2,160 – US troops killed since Bush declared end of major combat operations May 1, 2003.

Number of foreign troops in Iraq

250,000 – Number of foreign troops deployed for invasion in March 2003. (Including 100,000 Americans and 30,000 Britons on ground; rest were air and naval forces in region.)

156,000 – Number of foreign troops deployed in Iraq in March 2006. (Includes 133,000 Americans, 8,500 Britons and 14,500 from 24 other countries, down from peak of 300,000 soldiers from US and 37 other countries.)

Iraqi security forces

7,000-9,000 – Total size of Iraqi security forces in May 2003 loyal new Iraqi government. (Brookings Institute estimate.)

232,100 – Number of Iraqis under arms in March 2006, according to US department of defence. (It adds that no Iraqi army battalion is yet capable of fighting insurgents without US help.)

Daily insurgent attacks

8 – Average number of attacks per day in June 2003.

75 – Average number of attacks per day in January 2006. (Down from October 2005 high of almost 100 daily.)

President Bush’s job rating

67% – Proportion of Americans polled in March 2003 who approved of Bush’s job performance at the time of invasion. (ABC-Washington Post poll.)

37% – Proportion who approved on Bush’s performance in March 2006, the lowest of the Bush presidency. (AP-Ipsos poll.)

US opinions about the war

70% – Proportion of Americans polled in April 2003 who said the war was worth fighting. (ABC-Washington Post poll.)

29% – Proportion in March 2006 who say results of the war worth the costs. (CBS poll.)

US opinions on Bush’s handling of Iraq

71% – Proportion of Americans polled in April 2003 who approved of the way Bush was dealing with Iraq. (Gallup poll.)

39% – Proportion in March 2006 who approved of Bush handling of Iraq. (AP-Ipsos poll.)

US cost of war

$56 billion – Amount spent by the Pentagon on Iraq-related efforts in 2003. (Includes $12.7 billion during the two months of heaviest combat.)

$5.9 billion – Average Pentagon expenditure per month on Iraq in March 2006. (Figure doesn’t include costs of replacing equipment and training Iraqi forces.)

Status of reconstruction

50% – Proportion of Iraqis with access to clean drinking water before the war.
32% – Proportion of Iraqis with access to clean drinking water now.

16-24 – Hours per day of electrical power to homes in Baghdad before the war.
Under 4 – Hours of electric power to Baghdad homes now.

2.5 million – Iraq’s peak prewar oil production in barrels per day (bpd)
1.84 million – Iraq’s oil production now (bpd)

Sources: AP reporting, Brookings Institute, Pentagon, U.S. congressional and budget officials.

Source: AFP