Afghanistan Country Facts

Afghanistan is a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia. With an area of 250,775 square miles (649,507 sq km), it is bordered on the north by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, all formerly republics of the Soviet Union; on the northeast briefly by China; on the east and south by Pakistan; and on the west by Iran.

Both Afghanistan's name (Afghānistān) and its borders have been determined by outsiders. Its diverse population is the result of repeated migrations and invasions stretching from the second millennium B.C. to the late 20th century. Variants of the word Afghān were first used in the neighboring civilizations of Iran and India about 2,000 years ago. The name always referred to the Pashtu-speaking peoples, who in the early 21st century are the most numerous ethnic group in eastern and south-central Afghanistan. Pashtu, or in its variant pronunciation, Paktu, is an eastern Iranian or Indo-European language; it is linguistically part of the same family as Persian and Sanskrit. The name Afghānistān, the country of the Afghans, has historically designated the territory dominated numerically, and since the mid-18th century politically, by Pashtu-speaking tribes. For millennia, this territory has also been home to numerous other linguistic or ethnic groups.

Following the 1973 coup by Muhammad Daud (Muḥammad Dā’ūd) against his cousin Zahir Shah (Zāhir Shāh), the last Pashtun king, Afghanistan spiraled into political and economic chaos. The most destructive period occurred after the 1979 invasion by the Soviet Union. The invasion triggered more than two decades of warfare. By the time the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the Afghan state had ceased to exist. An internecine struggle followed the Soviet withdrawal. It culminated in the victory of the fundamentalist Taliban regime in 1996 and the rise of the al-Qaeda (al-Qā‘ida) terrorist organization as a semiautonomous power within Afghan territory. In the fall of 2001 the United States intervened in response to al-Qaeda's destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City. By this time, Afghanistan's educational system was moribund. Libraries and museums had been either closed or destroyed. Irrigation systems had collapsed.

Millions of land mines obstructed travel and agriculture, and much of the national infrastructure had ceased to exist. At least 10% of the estimated population of nearly 28 million lived in exile in Iran, Pakistan, Central Asia, Europe, and the United States. When reconstruction began in 2002, no reliable figures existed for any aspect of the economy, the educational and health systems, or the demographic characteristics of the population.