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The People
of Afghanistan
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Population:
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29,121,286
country
comparison to the world: 41
note:
this
is a significantly revised
figure; the previous estimate of
33,609,937 was extrapolated from
the last Afghan census held in
1979, which was never completed
because of the Soviet invasion;
a new Afghan census is scheduled
to take place in 2010 (July 2010
est.)
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Age
structure:
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0-14
years: 43.6%
(male 6,343,611/female
6,036,673)
15-64
years: 54%
(male 7,864,422/female
7,470,617)
65
years and over: 2.4%
(male 326,873/female 353,520)
(2010 est.)
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Median
age:
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total:
18
years
male:
17.9
years
female:
18
years (2010 est.)
|
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Population
growth rate:
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2.471%
(2010 est.)
country
comparison to the world: 33 |
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Birth
rate:
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38.11
births/1,000 population (2010
est.)
country
comparison to the world: 19 |
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Death
rate:
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17.65
deaths/1,000 population (July
2010 est.)
country
comparison to the world: 3 |
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Net
migration rate:
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4.24
migrant(s)/1,000 population
(2010 est.)
country
comparison to the world: 23 |
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Urbanization:
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urban
population: 24%
of total population (2008)
rate
of urbanization: 5.4%
annual rate of change (2005-10
est.)
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Sex
ratio:
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at
birth: 1.05
male(s)/female
under
15 years: 1.05
male(s)/female
15-64
years: 1.05
male(s)/female
65
years and over: 0.92
male(s)/female
total
population: 1.05
male(s)/female (2010 est.)
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Infant
mortality rate:
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total:
151.5
deaths/1,000 live births
country
comparison to the world: 2
male:
155.15
deaths/1,000 live births
female:
147.67
deaths/1,000 live births (2010
est.)
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Life
expectancy at birth:
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total
population: 44.65
years
country
comparison to the world: 221
male:
44.45
years
female:
44.87
years (2010 est.)
|
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Total
fertility rate:
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5.5
children born/woman (2010 est.)
country
comparison to the world: 13 |
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HIV/AIDS
- adult prevalence rate:
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0.01%
(2001 est.)
country
comparison to the world: 168 |
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HIV/AIDS
- people living with HIV/AIDS:
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NA
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HIV/AIDS
- deaths:
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NA
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Major
infectious diseases:
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degree
of risk: high
food
or waterborne diseases: bacterial
and protozoal diarrhea,
hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne
disease: malaria
animal
contact disease: rabies
note:
highly
pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza
has been identified in this
country; it poses a negligible
risk with extremely rare cases
possible among US citizens who
have close contact with birds
(2009)
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Nationality:
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noun:
Afghan(s)
adjective:
Afghan
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Ethnic
groups:
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Pashtun
42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek
9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch
2%, other 4%
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Religions:
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Sunni
Muslim 80%, Shia Muslim 19%,
other 1%
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Languages:
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Afghan
Persian or Dari (official) 50%,
Pashto (official) 35%, Turkic
languages (primarily Uzbek and
Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages
(primarily Balochi and Pashai)
4%, much bilingualism
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Literacy:
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definition:
age
15 and over can read and write
total
population: 28.1%
male:
43.1%
female:
12.6%
(2000 est.)
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School
life expectancy (primary to
tertiary education):
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total:
8
years
male:
11
years
female:
5
years (2004)
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Education
expenditures:
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NA
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cia fact
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Origin
of the name
Main
article: Afghan (ethnonym)
The first
part of the name "Afghan" designates the
Pashtun people since ancient times, the founders of
Afghanistan and the largest ethnic group of the country.
This name is mentioned in the form of Abgan in the
3rd century CE and as Avagana or Afghana in
the 6th century CE.
The
Encyclopædia Iranica states:
From
a more limited, ethnological point of view, "Afghān"
is the term by which the Persian-speakers of Afghanistan
(and the non-Paštō-speaking ethnic groups
generally) designate the Paštūn. The equation [of]
Afghan [and] Paštūn has been propagated all the
more, both in and beyond Afghanistan, because the Paštūn
tribal confederation is by far the most important in the
country, numerically and politically. The term "Afghān"
has probably designated the Paštūn since ancient
times. Under the form Avagānā, this ethnic
group is first mentioned by the Indian astronomer Varāha
Mihira in the beginning of the 6th century CE in his
Brihat-samhita.
A people
called the "Afghans" are mentioned several
times in a 10th century geography book, Hudud al-'alam. Al-Biruni
referred to them in the 11th century as various tribes
living on the western frontier mountains of the Indus River,
which would be the Sulaiman Mountains. Ibn Battuta, a famous
Moroccan travelling scholar visiting the region in 1333,
writes:
We
travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of
which is now occupied by a village inhabited by a tribe
of Persians called
Afghans...
Muhammad
Qasim Hindu Shah (Ferishta) explains extensively about the
Afghans in the 16th century. For example, he writes:
The
men of Kábul and Khilj also went home; and whenever
they were questioned about the Musulmáns of the
Kohistán (the mountains), and how matters stood there,
they said, "Don't call it Kohistán, but Afghánistán;
for there is nothing there but Afgháns and disturbances."
Thus it is clear that for this reason the people of the
country call their home in their own language
.
Afghan
soldiers of the Durrani Empire. The name
By the
17th century, it seems that some Pashtuns themselves were
using the term as an ethnonym – a fact that is supported
by traditional Pashto literature, for example, in the
writings of the 17th-century Pashto poet Khushal Khan
Khattak:
Pull
out your sword and slay any one, that says Pashtun and
Afghan are not one! Arabs know this and so do Romans:
Afghans are Pashtuns, Pashtuns are Afghans!
The last
part of the name, -stān is a Persian suffix for
"place", prominent in many languages of the
region. The name "Afghanistan" is described
by the 16th century Mughal Emperor Babur in his memoirs as
well as by later Mughal scholar Firishta, referring to
territories south of Kabul that were inhabited by Pashtuns
(called "Afghans" by them). Until the 19th
century the name Afghanistan was used for the traditional
Pashtun territory, between the Hindu Kush mountains and the
Indus River, while the kingdom as a whole was known as the Kingdom
of Kabul, as mentioned by the British statesman and
historian Mountstuart Elphinstone. In 1857, in his review of
J.W. Kaye's The Afghan War, Friedrich Engels
describes "Afghanistan" as:
[...]
an extensive country of Asia [...] between Persia and
the Indies, and in the other direction between the Hindu
Kush and the Indian Ocean. It formerly included the
Persian provinces of Khorassan and Kohistan, together
with Herat, Beluchistan, Cashmere, and Sinde, and a
considerable part of the Punjab [...] Its principal
cities are Kabul, the capital, Ghuznee, Peshawer, and
Kandahar.
Other
parts of the country were at certain periods recognized as
independent kingdoms, such as the Kingdom of Balkh in
the early 18th century. With the expansion and
centralization of the country, Afghan authorities adopted
the name "Afghanistan" for the entire kingdom,
after its English translation had already appeared in
various treaties between the British Raj and Qajarid Persia,
referring to the lands subject to the Pashtun Barakzai
dynasty of Kabul. Afghanistan became the official
internationally recognized name in 1919 after the Treaty of
Rawalpindi was signed to regain the country's independence
from the British, and was confirmed as such in the nation's
1923 constitution.
from
wikipedia |
