Afghanistan
population: UN projection (1 Jul 2025) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 9 metros tracked
🗺️ Geography9 metros
Afghanistan metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.
Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.
🏙️ 9 tracked metros
🗂️ Provinces
34 entries listed under Afghanistan. Select any to see its metros and footprint.
📋 At a glance
- Official languages
- Uzbek, Turkmen, Arabic, Balochi, Pashayi +4 more
- Currency
- Afghani (AFN)
- Government
- Islamic theocracy
- Constitution
- 2004, 0 amendment events since
- Demonym
- Afghan
- Time zone
- UTC+04:30
- Driving side
- Right
- Calling code
- +93
- Internet TLD
- .af
- ISO 3166
- AF
- Established
- 1709
- Highest point
- Noshaq (7,492 m (24,580 ft))
- National anthem
- This Is the Home of the Brave
Facts via Wikidata.
🗣️ Languages of Afghanistan
Western Farsi first; 2 languages share the country; 2 official.
| Language | Share | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western Farsi | 50% | Official | CLDR, country |
| Pashto | 43% | Official | CLDR, country |
| Hazaragi | 5.9% | None | CLDR, country |
| Uzbek | 4.7% | Regional | CLDR, country |
| Turkmen | 1.7% | Regional | CLDR, country |
| prd | 1.2% | None | CLDR, country |
Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.
- Effective languages
- 2.3
- Official-language gap
- 50%
- Western Farsi is spoken by 50%
📰 In the news2 stories
BBC News · 21 Sept 2026
Pakistan orders Afghan medical students to leaveAbout 1,000 students face removal, and for the women among them returning to Afghanistan would end their medical careers.
The Washington Post · 13 Sept 2026
Al-Qaeda regroups in Afghanistan, 25 years after 9/11The Post reports al-Qaeda is regrouping in Afghanistan, 25 years after 9/11.
💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.
Alliances & Organisations2 full memberships
Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer
🏛️ Leadership History21 leaders · click to expand
marks a monarch.
Other
Emirate of Afghanistan
Durrani Empire
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
The power line is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.
⚔️ Wars and conflicts10 interstate wars · click to expand
| Conflict | Years | Against | Combat deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Afghanistan–Pakistan war | 2026–present | Pakistan | 100–457 |
| United States invasion of Afghanistan | 2001 | Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan | 9,550–14,388 |
| Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)● | 1989–1992 | Republic of Afghanistan | 40,000+ |
| Soviet–Afghan War● | 1979–1989 | Afghan Mujahideen,Afghan Interim Government,Pakistan | 600,000–2,000,000 |
| Afghan Civil War (1928–1929) | 1928–1929 | Amānullāh Khān,Inayatullah Khan,Ali Ahmad Khan,Various anti-Saqqawist tribes,Wardak,Maydan,Jalriz,Sanglakh,Mohammed Nādir Khān | 7,500+ |
| Third Anglo-Afghan War | 1919 | British Empire,India | 2,136+ |
| Second Anglo-Afghan War● | 1878–1880 | British Empire | 21,000+ |
| Anglo-Persian War | 1856–1857 | Persia | 2,000+ |
| First Anglo-Afghan War● | 1838–1842 | British Empire,British East India Company | 20,000+ |
| Afghan-Sikh Wars | 1813–1837 | Sikh Empire | — |
Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.” Figures marked “COW battle deaths” are Correlates of War battle-death counts, which run lower than total deaths.
👥 Population over time
Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.
👥 To 2100
The UN’s probabilistic projection for Afghanistan: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.
What drives it
Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.
Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.
💰 Billionaires1 · $1.4B combined · click to expand
Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.
🏆 National Teams
Afghanistan on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.