What the data says about Afghanistan

Statistical infrastructure in low-income economies like Afghanistan typically relies more heavily on household surveys and modeled estimates than on continuous administrative registration, so several figures on this profile carry a wider margin of uncertainty and a longer lag between the reference year and today than a high-income country's data would. With a small population, a single survey round or a change in methodology can shift Afghanistan's reported figures noticeably from one release to the next, independent of any real change on the ground. Where a field on this page reads "N/A," it usually means the relevant international agency has not yet published a recent estimate for Afghanistan, not that the underlying condition doesn't exist.

Afghanistan sits in Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan with a population of 42.6 million, placing it 36th out of 217 countries by headcount. Its capital, Kabul, anchors a Low income economy with total GDP of $17.8 billion - ranked 137th globally, and GDP per capita of $417. This combination of demographic scale and economic output shapes everything from household purchasing power and domestic market depth to the country's weight in regional trade flows and international development programmes.

Life expectancy at birth in Afghanistan is 66.3 years, ranking 184th worldwide and offering a summary read on healthcare access, nutrition, sanitation, and long-run living standards. The World Bank's World Development Indicators, combined with the WHO Global Health Observatory and ILO ILOSTAT wage statistics, expose 38 data points across 7 thematic areas, from fertility and urbanisation to CO₂ emissions, school enrolment, and labour-force participation. Reading these indicators together, rather than in isolation, is what turns headline numbers into a grounded portrait of how people actually live.

Use the indicator tables below to track trajectories over time, jump to Afghanistan's placement on specific rankings such as GDP, population density, or life expectancy, and open the side-by-side Compare view to benchmark against peers inside Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan or across income groups. Because all figures come from official, CC BY 4.0-licensed datasets with clear vintages, you can cite them directly in research or journalism. Where a field reads "N/A", the upstream agency has not yet released that value for Afghanistan - we never fabricate estimates or carry forward stale values, so missing points stay visible rather than quietly filled in.