Afghanistan – numbers, dates, facts

Afghanistan – numbers, dates, facts

At least since the fall of the Taliban regime, most people know quite a bit about Afghanistan. Here you will find current information about the size, population and languages of the country on the Hindu Kush.

Geographical Location: Afghanistan borders Iran to the west and Pakistan to the south and east. Other neighboring countries are Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan (to the north) and China.

Size of the country: 652,000 square kilometers. For comparison: Germany is 357,000 square kilometers in size.

Capital: Kabul

 Other major cities are Kandahar in the south, Herat in the north-west, Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jellallabad in the east.

Politics: Afghanistan is currently administered by an interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

Ethnic groups:

The most important ethnic groups in the multi-ethnic state are Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazarahs, Turkmens, Uzbeks and Baluchs.

Religions:

99 percent of Afghans are Muslims, of whom 84 percent are Sunni and 15 percent Shia. One percent of Afghans are Sikhs and Hindus.

Main languages: Pashto and Dari

Population:

According to the latest estimates, there are between 15 and 24 million people in Afghanistan, exact numbers are not available because there has never been a census in the country. For comparison: Germany has 81.6 million inhabitants.

Refugees:

 There are approximately 4.5 million Afghan refugees outside the country. About 1.5 million in Iran and about 3 million in Pakistan.

Standard of living: Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Hardship and misery have been aggravated considerably by more than 20 years of war and fighting. Entire generations of children have never attended school. The illiteracy rate is estimated at around 90 percent. For comparison: in Germany it is less than five percent.

Life expectancy:

46 years. For comparison: In Germany, the average life expectancy is 76 years. Infant mortality is particularly high in Afghanistan: 257 out of 1,000 children do not reach the age of five.

Economy:

It is characterized by agriculture, there is practically no industry. Even before the armed conflicts, the country was one of the main recipients of development aid. Germany – which has had friendly relations with Afghanistan for over 100 years – has always been one of the main donor countries. There is also help in the field of education: there has been a German-language high school in Kabul since the late 1920s. Germans taught at Kabul University