Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919.

A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war.

The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy.

Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama BIN LADIN.

The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005.

In December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan and the National Assembly was inaugurated the following December.

Despite gains toward building a stable central government, a resurgent Taliban and continuing provincial instability - particularly in the south and the east - remain serious challenges for the Afghan Government. Source: CIA World Fact Book

Population: 33,609,937 (July 2009 est.)

---

Age structure: 0-14 years: 44.5% (male 7,664,670/female 7,300,446) 15-64 years: 53% (male 9,147,846/female 8,679,800) 65 years and over: 2.4% (male 394,572/female 422,603) (2009 est.)

---

Median age: total: 17.6 years male: 17.6 years female: 17.6 years (2008 est.)

---

Population growth rate: 2.629% (2009 est.)

---

Birth rate: 45.82 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)

---

Death rate: 19.56 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)

---

Net migration rate: 21 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

---

Urbanization: urban population: 24% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 5.4% annual rate of change (2005-2010)

---

Sex ratio: 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: 0.93 male(s)/female total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

---

Infant mortality rate: total: 151.95 deaths/1,000 live births male: 156.01 deaths/1,000 live births female: 147.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

---

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 44.64 years male: 44.47 years female: 44.81 years (2009 est.)

---

Total fertility rate: 6.53 children born/woman (2009 est.)

---

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.01% (2001 est.)

---

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: NA

---

HIV/AIDS - deaths: NA

---

Major infectious diseases: 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)

---

Nationality: noun: Afghan(s) adjective: Afghan

---

Ethnic groups: Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%

---

Religions: Sunni Muslim 80%, Shia Muslim 19%, other 1%

---

Languages: 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

---

Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 28.1% male: 43.1% female: 12.6% (2000 est.)

---

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education): total: 8 years male: 11 years female: 4 years (2004)

---

Education expenditures: NA

Afghanistan's economy is recovering from decades of conflict. The economy has improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 largely because of the infusion of international assistance, the recovery of the agricultural sector, and service sector growth.

Real GDP growth exceeded 7% in 2008. Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan is extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid, agriculture, and trade with neighboring countries. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs.

Criminality, insecurity, and the Afghan Government's inability to extend rule of law to all parts of the country pose challenges to future economic growth. It will probably take the remainder of the decade and continuing donor aid and attention to significantly raise Afghanistan's living standards from its current level, among the lowest in the world.

International pledges made by more than 60 countries and international financial institutions at the Berlin Donors Conference for Afghan reconstruction in March 2004 reached $8.9 billion for 2004-09. While the international community remains committed to Afghanistan's development, pledging over $57 billion at three donors' conferences since 2002, Kabul will need to overcome a number of challenges.

Expanding poppy cultivation and a growing opium trade generate roughly $3 billion in illicit economic activity and looms as one of Kabul's most serious policy concerns. Other long-term challenges include: budget sustainability, job creation, corruption, government capacity, and rebuilding war torn infrastructure.

---

GDP (purchasing power parity): $23.03 billion (2008 est.) $21.43 billion (2007) $19.22 billion (2006)

---

GDP (official exchange rate): $12.85 billion (2008 est.)

---

GDP - real growth rate: 7.5% (2008 est.)

---

GDP - per capita (PPP): $800 (2008 est.)

---

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 31% industry: 26% services: 43% note: data exclude opium production (2008 est.)

---

Labor force: 15 million (2004 est.)

---

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 80% industry: 10% services: 10% (2004 est.)

---

Unemployment rate: 40% (2008 est.)

---

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA% highest 10%: NA%

---

Budget: revenues: $890 million expenditures: $2.7 billion note: Afghanistan has also received $2.6 billion from the Reconstruction Trust Fund and $63 million from the Law and Order Trust Fund (2007 est.)

---

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 13% (2007 est.)

---

Central bank discount rate: NA

---

Commercial bank prime lending rate: 18.14% (31 December 2007)

---

Stock of money: $1.426 billion (31 December 2007)

---

Stock of quasi money: $958.6 million (31 December 2007)

---

Stock of domestic credit: $20.06 million (31 December 2007)

---

Market value of publicly traded shares: $NA

---

Agriculture - products: opium, wheat, fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins, lambskins

---

Industries: small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, cement; handwoven carpets; natural gas, coal, copper

---

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

---

Electricity - production: 839 million kWh (2007 est.)

---

Electricity - consumption: 1.418 billion kWh (2007 est.)

---

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2007 est.)

---

Electricity - imports: 608 million kWh (2007 est.)

---

Oil - production: 0 bbl/day (2007 est.)

---

Oil - consumption: 5,036 bbl/day (2006 est.)

---

Oil - exports: 0 bbl/day (2005)

---

Oil - imports: 4,534 bbl/day (2005)

---

Oil - proved reserves: 0 bbl (1 January 2006 est.)

---

Natural gas - production: 20 million cu m (2006 est.)

---

Natural gas - consumption: 20 million cu m (2006 est.)

---

Natural gas - exports: 0 cu m (2007 est.)

---

Natural gas - imports: 0 cu m (2007 est.)

---

Natural gas - proved reserves: 49.55 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)

---

Current account balance: -$67 million (2007 est.)

---

Exports: $327 million; note - not including illicit exports or reexports (2007)

---

Exports - commodities: opium, fruits and nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and semi-precious gems

---

Exports - partners: India 22.8%, Pakistan 21.8%, US 20.5%, Tajikistan 7.2% (2007)

---

Imports: $4.85 billion (2007)

---

Imports - commodities: capital goods, food, textiles, petroleum products

---

Imports - partners: Pakistan 36.8%, US 11%, India 5%, Germany 4.2% (2007)

---

Debt - external: $8 billion in bilateral debt, mostly to Russia; Afghanistan has $500 million in debt to Multilateral Development Banks (2004) Exchange rates: afghanis (AFA) per US dollar - 50 (2007), 46 (2006), 47.7 (2005), 48 (2004), 49 (2003)