Afghanistan

Overview

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a landlocked country of about 44 million people at the junction of Central and South Asia. Covering roughly 652,900 km2, it is dominated by the Hindu Kush mountain range, with plains in the north and a plateau in the southwest. Afghanistan borders Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Its location continues to shape its external relations: Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan are its main sources of imports, while Pakistan and India take most of its exports. Afghanistan’s political system has undergone major changes over the past several decades. The monarchy ended in 1973, Soviet forces occupied the country from 1979 to 1989, and the Taliban ruled from 1996 to 2001. The 2004 Constitution established an Islamic republic, which lasted until the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The country is largely arid and mountainous, with forests covering about 2% of its land. Dari and Pashto are the official languages, and Islam is the predominant religion, with a Sunni majority and a Shia minority.

Afghanistan remains a low-income economy in which agriculture and external aid play an important role in household income and the external balance. Agriculture employs about half of the workforce and accounts for about one-third of GDP, while services account for close to half. The economy contracted by 20.7% in 2021, after the change of government led to a reduction in international aid, the freezing of central bank assets, and the loss of access to the international banking system. Growth has since resumed, but the return of several million Afghans from Iran and Pakistan since 2023 has added to population growth, and per capita income has stagnated. In 2025, Afghanistan’s GDP per capita was approximately US$450, and real GDP grew by 1.5%.

Source: World Bank. (2026). World Development Indicators, from https://data.worldbank.org/country/afghanistan