Frequently Asked Facts:

• Population:
  31,889,923 (July 2007 est.)
• Official Languages:
  Pashtu, Dari
• Religion:
  Sunni Muslim 80%, Shi'a Muslim 19%, Other (Hindu, Christian) 1%
• Ethnic Groups:
  Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%
• Currency:
  Afghani (1 Afghani (AF) = 100 puls)
• Independence:
  19 August 1919 (from UK control over Afghan foreign affairs)
• Environment - International Agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation
• GDP:
  $21.5 billion (2006 est.)
• GDP - Composition:
  Agriculture: 38%
  Industry: 24%
  Services: 38%
  Note: data exclude opium production (2005 est.)

Overview: Afghanistan does not have any links to any ocean or sea, it is a landlocked country. The northern and eastern part of the country has high terrain and the lower south and southwest is mostly semi-deserts and plain lands.

Total Area: 647,500 sq km (250,000 sq. miles)

Rivers & Lakes:
Click here for more information

Climate:
Arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers.

Terrain:
Mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest.

Environment:
Earthquakes; soil degradation, desertification, overgrazing, deforestation, war pollution.

Extreme Elevations:
lowest point: Amu Darya 258 m
highest point: Nowshak 7,485 m

Natural Resources:
Natural Gas, Petroleum, Coal, Copper, Chromite, Talc, barites, Sulfur, Lead, Zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones.

Environment Issues:
Limited natural fresh water 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

Boundary: China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2430 km, Tajikistan 1206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km

Administrative Regions (29 provinces/Wulayats):
Badakhshan, Badghis, Baghlan, Balkh, Bamiyan, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand, Herat, Juzjan, Kabul, Kandahar, Kapisa, Kunar, Kunduz, Laghman, Logar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Oruzgan, Paktia, Paktika, Parwan, Samangan, Sar-e-Pul, Takhar, Wardak, Zabul

History Overview: Afghanistan's crossroads position in Central Asia has subjected it to constant invasion and conquest throughout its long recorded history. The parade of conquerors in historic times includes DARIUS I of Persia in the 6th century BC; ALEXANDER THE GREAT in 328 BC; the Sakas, Parthians, and the Buddhist Kushans in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC; and White Huns, in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. The Arabs introduced Islam in the 7th century, and the Turks under Mahmud of Ghazni briefly made Afghanistan the center of Islamic power and civilization at the beginning of the 11th century. The MONGOLS invaded Afghanistan early in the 13th century, and Timur added it to his empire at the end of the 14th century. In the early 16th century, Timor's descendant Babur, first of the MOGULS, founded an empire in India from his base at Kabul. In 1747 the Pashtun, having thrown off the Persian yoke, established a dynasty of their own under Ahmad Shah Durrani, the leader of a tribal confederation. Pashtun strength was consolidated by Dost Muhammad Khan (reign 1826-63) who founded a second dynasty early in the 19th century.

Effective physical control over all of the country, however, was first achieved by Dost Muhammad's grandson, Abdur Rahman Khan (reign 1880-1901); Abdur Rahman's diplomacy also prevented either the British or the Russian empires from gaining internal control over Afghanistan. Frustrated by their failure to subdue the country in the Anglo-Afghan wars of 1839-42 and 1878-80, the British agreed to subsidize an Afghan ruler strong enough to serve as a buffer between the empires. Abdur Rahman Khan's grandson, Amanullah Shah (reign 1919-29), in 1921 ended British involvement in Afghan affairs. He also initiated a series of ambitious efforts at social and political modernization, but tribal opposition forced him to flee the country. Zahir Shah ruled Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973. In 1964 he sponsored a serious attempt at liberal, Islamic constitutionalism including free elections and partial parliamentary democracy. When the experiment foundered, the king's cousin Mohammad Daud Khan seized power in a nearly bloodless coup and ruled as a republican president from 1973 to 1978. Zahir Shah went into exile in Europe. Afghanistan was invaded by the Red Army in 1979 and the invasion ended in 1989 when the last troops withdrew from Afghanistan. Since then the country is stalled in a civil war which has cost more than half a million lives on top of the the million and a half people who died during the Russian invasion. Afghanistan has been one of the most independent countries in the World. Afghanistan has never been a colony. The British had control of the Afghan foreign affairs until August 19, 1919.

Major Languages: Pashtu 42%, Afghan Persian (Dari) 43%, Turkic languages 11%, Minor languages 4%.

Major Ethnic Divisions: Pashtun 52%, Tajik 25%, Uzbek 6%, Hazara 12%, Other 5%;

Minor Ethnic Division: Chahar Aimaqs, Turkmen, Baloch, and others.

Religious Affiliations: Sunni Muslim 84%, Shi'a Muslim 15%, other (Hindu, Jewish, Christians) 1% 

Population: 31,889,923 (July 2007 est.)

Overview: Economic considerations have played second fiddle to political and military upheavals during more than 18 years of war, including the 10-year Soviet military occupation (December 27, 1979 - February 15, 1989). The economy of the country was completely destroyed by the war against the Red Army and the in the civil war since. Afghanistan is one of the world's poorest countries. Though it acquired a new currency in October 2002, it has no effective banking system and its central government raises a pathetic amount of revenue. War, earthquakes and drought have left its infrastructure in ruins and many Afghans (millions of whom have returned from abroad) dependent on foreign aid. Agriculture is the largest sector of Afghanistan's economy and the source of livelihood for most of its population. In the late 1990s opium was its main export (the country was the world's largest producer). But the Taliban banned poppy growing in July 2000 with astonishing success, though cultivation has returned with a vengeance following their ouster. Afghanistan also has untapped hydrocarbon and mineral resources, but there has been little foreign investment. Countries have promised Afghanistan's government $4.5 billion to fund its rebuilding efforts. These bank on a surging private sector. A steady peace is required if the country is to continue to recover.

Highways:
total: 34,782 km
paved: 8,229 km
unpaved: 26,553 km (2004)

Pipelines:
Petroleum products - former USSR to Bagram and former USSR to Shindand; natural gas 180 km

Airports:
46 total, 11 Paved Runways, 35 Unpaved Runways

Inland Waterways:
1,200 km (746 mi)

Ports:
Sher Khan and Kheyrabad

Television Stations:
7 (1 government-run central television station in Kabul and regional stations in 6 of the 34 provinces) (2006)

Telephones:
Landline: 280,000 (2005)
Mobile: 1.4 million (2005)

Number of Daily Newspapers:
10 publications; numerous publications in English including Kabul Times.

Radios in use:
21 AM Stations, 5 FM Stations (broadcasts in Pashtu, Dari, Urdu, and English)