26.11.2004 - Source: UN General Assembly

The first national census since 1979 is scheduled for 2006 ("Report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security - Emergency international assistance for peace, normalcy and reconstruction of war-stricken Afghanistan A/59/581 S/2004/925") [#27496], [ID 182]

"49. A vital tool for government administration, as well as reconstruction and development planning, is the national census. Afghanistan’s last census was conducted in 1979, but not completed. A pre-census household listing began in October 2002 and is about to be completed, though fieldwork in four provinces has been delayed for reasons of poor security or difficult climate. Planning has nonetheless begun for the census itself, which is scheduled to be held over the course of 20 days in 2006. Currently, a planning team led by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is in Kabul. A donors’ conference will be held in December to seek funding to carry out the census."

Document(s): Open document

2004 - Source: UN Development Programme

Estimates on population figures and settlements of 2003 ("Human Development Report 2004 - Security with a Human Face: Challenges and Responsibilities") [#29245], [ID 180]

"Afghanistan is a landlocked country with an area of 647,500 sq. kms., bordering Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to the north, and China to the north east.1 Exact population figures for Afghanistan are not available because a census has not taken place since 1979. However, a nationwide 2003 UNICEF/CSO MICS estimate puts the total population figure at 23.85 million, with 28.8 per cent living in urban areas and 71.2 per cent in rural regions, and a population growth rate of 2.5 per cent per year. Overall, the population is scattered at a rate of 40 people per sq. km., while the distribution is very uneven – ranging from 489 persons per sq. km. in Kabul province to 0.7 persons per sq. km. in Nimruz. Administratively, Afghanistan is divided into 34 provinces (Welayat), each further divided into smaller administrative units (districts) called Woleswali. The boundaries of two new provinces have not yet been defined."

Document(s): Open document

2004 - Source: UN Development Programme

Human, social and economic indicators have dramatically dropped since 1992 ("Human Development Report 2004 - Security with a Human Face: Challenges and Responsibilities") [#29245], [ID 181]

"Years of conflict and neglect have taken a devastating toll, as measured by dramatic drops in human, social and economic indicators. By early 1992, the global Human Development Report recorded a per capita income of US$819 (in purchasing power parity, or PPP terms), a life expectancy at birth of 44.5 years, and an average adult literacy rate of 28.7 per cent. Women’s literacy rate was only 12.7 per cent. Only 29 per cent of the population had access to health services, which were clearly more available in urban areas (80 per cent) than in rural ones (17 per cent). Only 23 per cent had access to safe water – again predominantly in urban areas, where 40 per cent of households had access versus 19 per cent in rural areas).
By the beginning of the new century, human development estimates as recorded in this NHDR had become even more alarming: Life expectancy today is approximately 44.5 years, with healthy life expectancy at birth estimated at 33.4 years. One out of five children dies before the age of five, and one woman dies approximately every 30 minutes from pregnancy-related causes."

Document(s): Open document

01.2003 - Source: Overseas Development Institute

Social and ethnic composition of Afghan society ("Afghanistan’s political and constitutional development (Authors: Chris Johnson, William Maley, Alexander Thier and Ali Wardak)") [#11961], [ID 183]

"Afghanistan's social and ethnic complexity is striking. Whilst the overwhelming majority of Afghans are Muslims, and followers of the Sunni Hanafi School, the heterodox Shi'ite minority is strongly represented. Afghanistan is also multi-ethnic. While modern research on ethnicity emphasises the flexible and context-specific character of ethnic identifications, there is considerable anecdotal evidence that a large number of Afghans feel bound by strong norms of reciprocity linking them to their ethnic fellows. The main ethnic groups are the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks, but there are many others. However, while most analysts would probably agree that Pashtuns constitute the largest single group, there are no reliable data on the relative numerical strengths of these groups. Afghanistan is also multilingual: both Persian and Pashtu are widely spoken, alongside Turkic, Nuristani and even Dravidian languages.

Two other important bases of social division merit attention. First, there are striking differences between urban and rural areas. The bulk of the Afghan population live in the countryside, and are engaged in agricultural or horticultural production, or the management of herds or flocks, along with a range of off-farm activities. The poorer people are, the less agricultural production meets their needs and the more they rely or various forms of casual labour, remittances, charity and aid. While some elements of this population are nomadic, most work from farms or villages. These hamlets or settlements are often quite isolated: the combination of Afghanistan's harsh topography and the destruction or decay of roads during two decades of conflict has made them difficult to access. The urban population engages in a diverse range of economic activities. While there is no heavy industry there is a great deal of entrepreneurialism, based on light industry and service delivery. This is, however, limited by the absence of either a functioning banking system or an efficient capital market. In addition, there are perhaps one million internally-displaced Afghans, as well as a comparable number of recent returnees seeking to reintegrate themselves into the economic life of the country. There are also stark divisions in Afghanistan based on gender, especially in rural areas, where men and women typically perform different social roles based on the conception of men as heads of household, and women as homemakers and mothers. There are, however, significant regional variations; in some parts of the country, women play a substantial role in agriculture. In urban Afghanistan, significant changes in the social roles of women occurred from the beginning of the 1960s, and the assault on these innovations by the radical Taliban movement from 1994 onwards helps to explain why the Taliban proved unacceptable to most of the wider world. Nonetheless, Afghanistan remains a very conservative society, although crudely patriarchal interpretations of social life tend to ignore the means by which women can influence the world around them."

Document(s): Open document

1997 - Source:

Library of Congress – Country Studies Afghanistan: Population ("Library of Congress: Afghanistan - A Country Study (Data as of 1997)") [ID 184]

"No comprehensive census based upon systematically sound methods has ever been taken in Afghanistan. Most population statistics rely on estimates and samples. Successive governments have manipulated figures for their own political objectives. UN agencies, hundreds of NGOs, as well as bilateral agencies use different figures to suit their purposes in designing assistance programs. Furthermore, instability caused by the Soviet-Afghan war and the subsequent civil war resulted in massive movements of uprooted peoples. These factors also make demographic sampling necessarily imprecise."

Document(s): Library of Congress: Afghanistan - A Country Study (Data as of 1997)