Afghanistan

Indian Ocean drainage:

Indus (1,081,718 sq km)

Internal (endorheic basin) drainage:

Amu Darya (534,739 sq km); Tarim Basin (1,152,448 sq km)

• populations tend to cluster in the foothills and periphery of the rugged Hindu Kush range;
• smaller groups are found in many of the country's interior valleys;
• in general, the east is more densely settled, while the south is sparsely populated

• damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains;
• flooding;
• droughts

• landlocked;
• the Hindu Kush mountains that run northeast to southwest divide the northern provinces from the rest of the country;
• the highest peaks are in the northern Vakhan (Wakhan Corridor)

noun:

Afghan(s)

adjective:

Afghan

• current, reliable statistical data on ethnicity in Afghanistan are not available;
• Afghanistan's 2004 Constitution cited Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Turkman, Baluch, Pachaie, Nuristani, Aymaq, Arab, Qirghiz, Qizilbash, Gujur, and Brahwui ethnicities;
• Afghanistan has dozens of other small ethnic groups

total:

19.9 years (2023 est.)

male:

19.8 years

female:

20 years

• populations tend to cluster in the foothills and periphery of the rugged Hindu Kush range;
• smaller groups are found in many of the country's interior valleys;
• in general, the east is more densely settled, while the south is sparsely populated

at birth:

1.05 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.03 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

1.03 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.85 male(s)/female

total population:

1.03 male(s)/female (2023 est.)

total:

103.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)

male:

111.5 deaths/1,000 live births

female:

94.2 deaths/1,000 live births

total population:

54.1 years (2023 est.)

male:

52.5 years

female:

55.7 years

total:

0.01 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

beer:

0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

wine:

0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

spirits:

0.01 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

other alcohols:

0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

total:

23.3% (2020 est.)

male:

39.4% (2020 est.)

female:

7.2% (2020 est.)

women married by age 15:

4.2%

women married by age 18:

28.3% (2017 est.)

• limited natural freshwater resources;
• inadequate supplies of potable water;
• soil degradation;
• overgrazing;
• deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building materials);
• desertification;
• air and water pollution in overcrowded urban areas

party to:

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection

signed, but not ratified:

Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation

urban population:

26.9% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization:

3.34% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

severe localized food insecurity:

• due to civil conflict, population displacement, and economic slowdown - the latest analysis estimated the number of people in crisis or emergency food insecurity at 15.3 million people (35% of the population analyzed) between May and October 2023;
• although the levels of acute food insecurity have declined compared to the same season in 2022, largely due to seasonal improvements and the scale‑up of humanitarian assistance in 2022, the situation could deteriorate in areas where humanitarian assistance faces access constraints;
• the ban on women’s participation in the humanitarian response poses a challenge to the delivery of quality humanitarian assistance leading to significant additional access constraints, particularly to the most vulnerable, women and children (2023)

particulate matter emissions:

62.49 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions:

8.67 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions:

90.98 megatons (2020 est.)

Indian Ocean drainage:

Indus (1,081,718 sq km)

Internal (endorheic basin) drainage:

Amu Darya (534,739 sq km); Tarim Basin (1,152,448 sq km)

municipal:

200 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial:

170 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural:

20 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

conventional long form:

formerly Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

conventional short form:

Afghanistan

local long form:

formerly Jamhuri-ye Islami-ye Afghanistan

local short form:

Afghanistan

former:

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

etymology:

• the name "Afghan" originally referred to the Pashtun people (today it is understood to include all the country's ethnic groups), while the suffix "-stan" means "place of" or "country";
• so Afghanistan literally means the "Land of the Afghans"

name:

Kabul

geographic coordinates:

34 31 N, 69 11 E

time difference:

UTC+4.5 (9.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

daylight saving time:

does not observe daylight savings time

etymology:

named for the Kabul River, but the river's name is of unknown origin

• 34 provinces (welayat, singular - welayat);
• Badakhshan, Badghis, Baghlan, Balkh, Bamyan, Daykundi, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand, Herat, Jowzjan, Kabul, Kandahar, Kapisa, Khost, Kunar, Kunduz, Laghman, Logar, Nangarhar, Nimroz, Nuristan, Paktika, Paktiya, Panjshir, Parwan, Samangan, Sar-e Pul, Takhar, Uruzgan, Wardak, Zabul

• the Taliban is implementing its own interpretation of Islamic law, which partially based on the Hanifi school of Islamic jurisprudence;
• before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan had a mixed legal system of civil, customary, and Islamic law (2021)

citizenship by birth:

no

citizenship by descent only:

at least one parent must have been born in - and continuously lived in - Afghanistan

dual citizenship recognized:

no

residency requirement for naturalization:

5 years

description:

• the Taliban Government has not announced the formation of a legislative branch;
• before the 2021 Taliban takeover, Afghanistan had a bicameral National Assembly that consisted of the House of Elders and House of the People

highest court(s):

• the Taliban Government has a Supreme Court: number of judges and organizational structure NA;
• note - before 15 August 2021, Afghanistan had a Supreme Court (consisting of a supreme court chief and 8 justices organized into criminal, public security, civil, and commercial divisions)

judge selection and term of office:

• the Taliban Supreme Court judge selection and term of office NA;
• note - before 15 August 2021, the Supreme Court chief and justices were appointed by the president with the approval of the Wolesi Jirga;
• court chief and justices served single 10-year terms

subordinate courts:

the Taliban Government has many provincial-level courts, religious courts, and specialty courts;

• note - before 15 August 2021, consisted of Appeals Courts;
• Primary Courts;
• and Special Courts for issues including narcotics, security, property, family, and juveniles

• the Taliban Government enforces an authoritarian state and has banned other political parties;
• note - before 15 August 2021, the Ministry of Justice had licensed 72 political parties as of April 2019

chief of mission:

• the United States does not maintain a presence in Afghanistan and bases the Department of State's Afghanistan Affairs Unit in Doha, Qatar;
• note - the US Embassy in Kabul closed in August 2021

embassy:

Embassy Kabul, operations have been suspended; Department of State’s Afghanistan Affairs Unit operates from Doha, Qatar.

name:

"Milli Surood" (National Anthem)

lyrics/music:

Abdul Bari JAHANI/Babrak WASA

note: adopted 2006

total World Heritage Sites:

2 (both cultural)

selected World Heritage Site locales:

Minaret of Jam; Buddhas of Bamyan

note: the monumental 6th- and 7th-century statues were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001

• extremely low-income South Asian economy;
• import drops, currency depreciation, disappearing central bank reserves, and increasing inflation after Taliban takeover;
• increasing Chinese trade;
• hit hard by COVID;
• ongoing sanctions

• small-scale production of bricks, textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, apparel, food products, non-alcoholic beverages, mineral water, cement;
• handwoven carpets;
• natural gas, coal, copper

total:

20.2% (2021 est.)

male:

18.6%

female:

26.4%

lowest 10%:

3.8%

highest 10%:

24% (2008)

production:

2.096 million metric tons (2020 est.)

consumption:

2.096 million metric tons (2020 est.)

exports:

0 metric tons (2020 est.)

imports:

0 metric tons (2020 est.)

proven reserves:

66 million metric tons (2019 est.)

total petroleum production:

0 bbl/day (2021 est.)

refined petroleum consumption:

24,300 bbl/day (2019 est.)

crude oil and lease condensate exports:

0 bbl/day (2018 est.)

crude oil and lease condensate imports:

0 bbl/day (2018 est.)

crude oil estimated reserves:

0 barrels (2021 est.)

production:

80.193 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

consumption:

80.193 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

exports:

0 cubic meters (2021 est.)

imports:

0 cubic meters (2021 est.)

proven reserves:

49.554 billion cubic meters (2021 est.)

total subscriptions:

150,000 (2021 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants:

(2021 est.) less than 1

general assessment:

• Afghanistan's telecom sector is facing challenges providing adequate coverage to all of the population;
• prior to the Taliban regaining power, the World Bank and other donors supported the development of a nationwide fiber backbone and there is terrestrial cable connectivity to five neighboring countries;
• work on the 'Wakhan Corridor Fiber Optic Survey Project' to connect to China has faced obstacles because of Afghanistan's economic issues. (2021)

domestic:

before the Taliban takeover in August 2021, less than 1 per 100 for fixed-line teledensity; 57 per 100 for mobile-cellular subscriptions (2021)

international:

country code - 93; multiple VSAT's provide international and domestic voice and data connectivity (2019)

• under the Taliban government, independent media outlets have decreased in number and are probably self-censoring criticism of the Taliban and the Ministry of Information and Culture monitors all mass media in Afghanistan;
• television and radio are key media platforms;
• only about a fifth of Afghans use the internet, mostly through smartphones (2023)

number of registered air carriers:

3 (2020); inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 13

annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers:

1,722,612 (2018)

annual freight traffic on registered air carriers:

29.56 million (2018) mt-km

total:

34,903 km (2017)

paved:

17,903 km (2017)

unpaved:

17,000 km (2017)

• the Taliban has established a de facto ministry of defense and a national army (aka Army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Islamic Emirate Army, or Afghan Army);
• it has also formed a ministry of interior with a subordinate police force (2023)

• announced that approximately 130,000 personnel had been recruited for a new "National Army";
• also announced that over 50,000 personnel had been trained for the police force under the ministry of interior (2022)

note: as of 2022, there were also up to 10,000 foreign fighters in Afghanistan, most of whom were aligned with the Taliban

Afghanistan-China:

none identified

Afghanistan-Iran:

• Afghan and Iranian commissioners have discussed boundary monument densification and resurvey;
• Iran protests Afghanistan's restricting flow of dammed Helmand River tributaries during drought

Afghanistan-Pakistan:

• Pakistan has built fences in some portions of its border with Afghanistan which remains open in some areas to terrorist and other illegal activities;
• their alignments may not always be in conformance with the Durand Line and original surveyed definitions of the boundary;
• Pakistan demarcates the Durand Line differently from Afghanistan, and thus portions of the Pakistani fence may lie within what Afghanistan (and most of the international community, including the US) would consider Afghan territory;
• successive governments in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, have not accepted the 1947 demarcation line

Afghanistan-Tajikistan:

none identified

Afghanistan-Turkmenistan:

none identified

Afghanistan-Uzbekistan:

• none identified;
• boundary follows Amu Darya River as delimited in the Afghan-Soviet treaties and not by the river's current course;
• the boundary was delimited and possibly demarcated during Soviet times (pre-1991);
• no current negotiations between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan to redelimit the boundary have been identified

refugees (country of origin):

59,486 (Pakistan) (mid-year 2022)

IDPs:

4.394 million (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis displaced in the south and west due to natural disasters and political instability) (2022)