World Atlas: Afghanistan. On this page you can see the map, country flag and many detailed information about the people, history and economy of Afghanistan.
Here you can find online selected information about the geography, inhabitants, government, economy and history of Afghanistan. Included are selected statistics, an overview map and the detailed map of Afghanistan. But let's start with the flag of Afghanistan here:
Afghanistan - Overview:
What you should know about Afghanistan? Let's start with this: Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 communist countercoup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-communist mujahidin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Usama BIN Ladin. A UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005. In December 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan, and the National Assembly was inaugurated the following December. Karzai was reelected in August 2009 for a second term. The 2014 presidential election was the country's first to include a runoff, which featured the top two vote-getters from the first round, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani. Throughout the summer of 2014, their campaigns disputed the results and traded accusations of fraud, leading to a US-led diplomatic intervention that included a full vote audit as well as political negotiations between the two camps. In September 2014, Ghani and Abdullah agreed to form the Government of National Unity, with Ghani inaugurated as president and Abdullah elevated to the newly-created position of chief executive officer. The day after the inauguration, the Ghani administration signed the US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement and NATO Status of Forces Agreement, which provide the legal basis for the post-2014 international military presence in Afghanistan. Despite gains toward building a stable central government, the Taliban remains a serious challenge for the Afghan Government in almost every province. The Taliban still considers itself the rightful government of Afghanistan, and it remains a capable and confident insurgent force despite its last two spiritual leaders being killed; it continues to declare that it will pursue a peace deal with Kabul only after foreign military forces depart.
Geography of Afghanistan
Where on the globe is Afghanistan? The location of this country is Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran. Total area of Afghanistan is 652,230 sq km, of which 652,230 sq km is land. So this is quite a large country. How could we describe the terrain of the country? This way: mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest. The lowest point of Afghanistan is Amu Darya 258 m, the highest point Noshak 7,492 m. And the climate is arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers.
Inhabitants of Afghanistan
Let's take a look how many people live in Afghanistan. The number is: 34,124,811 (July 2017 est.). So quite a lot people live here. Who lives here? Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, other (includes smaller numbers of Baloch, Turkmen, Nuristani, Pamiri, Arab, Gujar, Brahui, Qizilbash, Aimaq, Pashai, and Kyrghyz). What are the languages in Afghanistan? Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 80% (Dari functions as the lingua franca), Pashto (official) 47%, Uzbek 11%, English 5%, Turkmen 2%, Urdu 2%, Pashayi 1%, Nuristani 1%, Arabic 1%, Balochi, Shughni, Pamiri, Hindi, Russian, German, French . And the religions: Muslim 99.7% (Sunni 84.7 - 89.7%, Shia 10 - 15%), other 0.3% (2009 est.). How old are the people in average? 18.8 years. We have to add that this number is the median - so one half of the people is older than this, one half is younger. And what is their life expectancy (at birth)? This: 51.7 years. Where the people live in Afghanistan? Here: 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. The major urban areas of Afghanistan are: Kabul (capital) 4.635 million (2015).
Government and Economy of Afghanistan
The capital of Afghanistan is Kabul and the government type presidential Islamic republic. Let's take a look at the administrative divisions - 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. Regarding the economy of Afghanistan, important industrial products are small-scale production of bricks, textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, apparel, food products, non-alcoholic beverages, mineral water, cement; handwoven carpets; natural gas, coal, coppe. Important agricultural products are opium, wheat, fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins, lambskins, poppies. The most important export commodities are opium, fruits and nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and semi-precious gems and the most important export partners are Pakistan 46.3%, India 37.6% (2016). The most important import commodities are machinery and other capital goods, food, textiles, petroleum products and the most important import partners are Iran 19.3%, Pakistan 18.3%, China 16.7%, Kazakhstan 9.5%, Uzbekistan 6.1%, Turkmenistan 5.4%, Malaysia 4% (2016). How rich is Afghanistan and how rich are people in this country? The most important number here is GDP per capita (PPP): $1,900 (2017 est.). This is a very low number. Let's add that this means Gross Domestic Product per person, which is recalculated with respect to the relative cost of local goods and services. And one more important number - population below poverty line: 35.8% (2011 est.).