Iran and Iraq

Iran and Iraq Comparison

 Iran and Iraq are seen by many Americans as quite similar or practically the same, as they are both located around dead center in the middle east and are directly next each other.  That being said, they are actually quite different in many ways.  For example, Iran is much larger than Iraq, with Iran covering 1,648,195 sq km compared to Iraq covering just 438,317 sq km, a 1209878 km difference.  Additionally, Iran are susceptible to more different types of natural disasters than Iraq, with periodic droughts, floods, dust storms, sandstorms, and earthquakes occurring in Iran.  In Iraq, there are still the same threats posed besides droughts and earthquakes.  The population is also very different with it being roughly proportional to the land size.  Iran contains a population of roughly 82,021,564 and Iraq has a population of roughly 39,192,111.

With all of these differences, Iran and Iraq also have some key similarities.  One of these being that the population of both nations is nearly 100% Muslim; and that they are the only two countries with a Shia Muslim majority.  Shia Muslims make up 90% of Iran's Muslims and 60% of Iraq's Muslims.  An additional similarity is both nations use crude oil as a big source of revenue with oil reserves in Iran totaling over 136 billion barrels and Iraq having more than 115 billion barrels.  All of these exports provide a large source of income but also bring an unwanted amount of foreign greed to both nations.

Map of Iran:

Map of Iraq:

 

Sources:

 Information: https://www.thoughtco.com/iran-and-iraq-differences-195595

 https://www.indexmundi.com/factbook/compare/iran.iraq

 https://medium.com/@darbymm85/the-difference-between-iran-and-iraq-5cd42f7c0b33

 Maps: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/islamic-republic-of-iran-map-vector-1551225

 https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/republic-of-iraq-map-vector-1762556