What the data says about Afghanistan

Every figure on this profile is a single measurement drawn from an official international dataset, and each one carries assumptions worth understanding before drawing conclusions. Income and output are reported at market exchange rates in current dollars, so they move with currency swings as well as real growth, and national averages can hide wide gaps between regions and households. Health and demographic measures are period estimates compiled from vital registration, surveys, and statistical models, and their reporting year often lags the present by one to three years. Reading several indicators together, rather than fixating on a single headline number, is what turns a row of statistics into a grounded picture of how people in this country actually live, work, and age.

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 $17.2 billion — ranked 138th globally — and GDP per capita of $414. 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 66.0 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 43 data points across 8 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.