Printer-friendly VersionThe Kurdish Globe
Youth in Suleimaniya, in Kurdistan Region, top the chart of readership in Iraq, according to a study conducted by the country's Ministry of Sports and Youth.
According to the results, only 21.2 percent of Iraqi youth read frequently.
The study found that in Suleimaniya 52.1 percent of young people surveyed were regular readers while readers in Erbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region came on the second rank. Third was the Kurdish city of Duhok with 18.7percent, while youth in Diyala Province came last with only 9.1 percent of regular readers among the youth.
The survey was conducted in 20 days in all of Iraq's 18 provinces and 19,600 people between the ages of 10-30 years participated in it.
Suleimaniya, with an estimated population of 1.5 million, is Kurdistan's second most important city. It is located east of the regional capital Erbil, in north-eastern Iraq. Named Sulaimani by the Kurds, it's regarded as the country's most secular city. Suleimaniya is often called the "Paris" of Iraq for its vibrant cultural life and its wide tree-lined boulevards.