Demographics of Afghanistan
The Demographics of Afghanistan are ethnically and linguistically mixed. This reflects its location astride historic trade and invasion routes leading from Central Asia into South Asia and Southwest Asia. Afghanistan can be considered a country of minorities as there is no group serving as a majority. Rather, Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group followed by Tajiks as the second largest group, then Hazaras, Uzbeks tied for third, followed by the Aimak, Turkmen, Baluch, Nuristani and other small groups. Pashto and Persian (Dari) the two official languages of the country. Persian is spoken by at least half of the population and serves as a lingua franca for most. Pashto is spoken widely in the south, east and south west. Uzbek and Turkmen are spoken in the north. Smaller groups throughout the country also speak more than 70 other languages and numerous dialects.
The term Afghan, historically synonymous with Pashtun, is nowadays often used to describe a person from the country of Afghanistan. It is, however, hard to combine the varying groups. Often the Pashtun are referred to as Afghans while other groups hold to their ethnic name (e.g., Tajiks are known as Tajiks, Turkmens are known as Turkmens, etc.). The citizens of Afghanistan are in many ways somewhat distinct from the notion of ethnic Afghans as a result of this understanding. Thus, in recent years, the term Afghanistani[3] has been suggested for the citizens of Afghanistan in contrast to (ethnic) Afghans who would be the Pashtuns. However, currently it is common for the non-Pashtun groups to mistakenly refer to their nationality as Afghan (or Afghanī)[4] rather than Afghanistani.
99% of Afghanistan's population adheres to Islam. An estimated 80% of the population is Sunni, following the Hanafi school of jurisprudence; 19% is predominantly Shi'a. Despite attempts during the years of communist rule to secularize Afghan society, Islamic practices pervade all aspects of life. In fact, Islam served as the principal basis for expressing opposition to communist rule and the Soviet invasion. Likewise, Islamic religious tradition and codes, together with traditional practices, provide the principal means of controlling personal conduct and settling legal disputes. Excluding urban populations in the principal cities, most Afghans are divided into tribal and other kinship-based groups, which follow traditional customs and religious practices.
History and identification of the people of Afghanistan
- For more information see: History of Afghanistan and Origins of the name Afghan
Afghans as a whole draw their modern national identity from the founding of the Durrani Empire in the mid 18th century. From 1747 until 1823 Ahmed Shah Durrani born in Multan, Punjab in modern day Pakistan, his sons and grandsons held the monarchy in direct session. They were the first Pashtun rulers of Afghanistan, from the Sadozai line of the Abdali (known as the Durrani since Ahmad Shah's reign) group of clans. It was under the leadership of Ahmad Shah that the nation of Afghanistan began to take shape following centuries of fragmentation and exploitation. However each ethnic group has its own unique history which makes up the entire Afghan history.
There requires some realization that Afghan nationalism can be synonymous with that of Pashtun nationalism and as a result cannot be conflated into an Afghan national identity as the country is a multiethnic entity. This is further complicated by the fact that there are now more Pashtuns (ethnic Afghans) located in Pakistan than in Afghanistan itself which has resulted in the increased usage of the term Afghanistani to denote the inhabitants of the modern state of Afghanistan and its diverse population. Thus, there have been a variety of groups who have lived in what is today Afghanistan, but were not ethnic Afghans such as the aforementioned Tajiks as well as Uzbeks and Hazaras etc. who are currently divided as to what constitutes a national Afghan identity. Because Afghan history is fraught with regional cleavages any notion of an Afghan nation-state is largely absent until the 18th century and the rise of the Durrani Empire. For this reason, important figures from the past such as Avicenna and Rumi, who were of ethnic Persian (Tajik) identity, are often not identified as ethnic Afghans or even as Afghan people, at least according to academics, while they are generally included within the context of the collective history of the modern nation-state in the geographic sense.[5]
Pashtuns
The Pashtuns (also known as Pakhtun or Pathan), are people that reside mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan and are also located in western Pakistan. Considerable pockets also exist throughout other parts of Afghanistan, and they are a major ethnic minority in all the major cities of Pakistan; notably Lahore, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Karachi which has the largest concentration(estimated at around 2 million not including Afghan refugees) of Pushtuns in a single city anywhere in the world. Smaller groups of Pashtuns are also found in Iran. Pashtun culture is ancient and much of it is yet to be recorded in contemporary times. There are many conflicting theories, some contemporary, some ancient, about the origins of the Pashtun people, both among historians and the Pashtun themselves. According to the writer W.K. Frazier Tyler writing in his book Afghanistan, "The word Afghan… first appears in history in the Hudud-al-Alam, a work by an unknown Arab geographer who wrote in 982 AD." The Afghan identity began to develop as Pashtun identity under the rule of Ahmad Shah Durrani who united the Pashtun (Afghan) chiefdoms in the middle of 18th century. Another boost took place under the rule of Nadir Shah who with Pashtun support further centralized the government. Until the advent of the modern "Afghan" state in the 20th century, the word Afghan had been synonymous with Pashtun.
Tajiks, Farsiwan, and Qizilbash
The Persian-speaking Tajiks are closely related to the Persians of Iran and are amongst the oldest inhabitants of the region. They can trace their roots back to the original Eastern Iranian peoples that settled Central Asia in ancient times, such as the Bactrians, Sogdians, Scythians and Parthians, as well as ancient Persians who fled to Central Asia during the Arab Islamic expansion. The Tajiks also comprise the majority population of Tajikistan and are found in large numbers in Uzbekistan and Iran as well as parts of western Pakistan and the Xinjiang province of China. Related groups in Afghanistan known as the Farsiwan and the Qizilbash are often affiliated with the Tajiks and are considered a subgroup the Tajiks. The difference between them is that the Farsiwan and Qizilbash are generally of the Shia while the rest of the Tajiks are of the Sunni sect.
Hazaras
Historically, the Hazara seem to have Turkic-Mongolian origins, but with some admixture from surrounding indigenous groups. Linguistically though the Hazara speak Persian, their variant is interspersed with more Mongolian words, but this is also the case with many Turkic languages such as Uzbek. It may simply be the case that the Hazara are of Uyghur Turkic origin as many Turks accompanied the Mongol armies or arrived in the region long before the Mongols. It is however commonly believed by many Afghans that the Hazara are descendants of Genghis Khan's army, which marched into the area during the 12th century. Proponents of this view hold that many of the Mongol soldiers and their family members settled in the area and remained there after the Mongol empire dissolved in the 13th century, converting to Islam and adopting local customs. The theory regarding a more Turkic origin for the Hazara has equal validity and the relatively small number of actual Mongols in comparison to Turks makes it more likely that the Hazara are descendants of Turkic invaders who were Persianized over time. Unlike most Afghans the Hazara are Shia, which has often set them apart from their neighbors. There are sizeable Hazara communities in Pakistan particularly in Quetta as well as in Iran.
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are the main Turkic people of Afghanistan and are found mainly in the northern regions of the country. Most likely the Uzbeks migrated with a wave of Turkic invaders and intermingled with local Iranian tribes over time to become the ethnic group they are today. By the 1500s the Uzbeks had settled throughout Central Asia and reached Afghanistan following the conquests of Muhammad Shaybani. Most Uzbeks are Sunni Muslim and are closely related to the Turkmen who also can be found in Afghanistan. The Uzbeks of Afghanistan are usually bilingual, fluent in both Persian and Uzbek.
Turkmen
The Turkmen are the smaller Turkic group who can also be found in neighboring Turkmenistan, Iran particularly around Mashad and Pakistan. Largely Sunni Muslim, their origins are very similar to that of the Uzbeks. Unlike, the Uzbeks, however, the Turkmen are traditionally a nomadic people (though they were forced to abandon this way of life in Turkmenistan itself under Soviet rule).
Baluch
The Baluch are another Iranian ethnic group that numbers around 200,000 in Afghanistan. The main Baloch areas located in Balochistan province in Pakistan and Sistan and Baluchistan province of Iran. Many also live in southern Afghanistan. They are most likely an offshoot of the Kurds and reached Afghanistan sometime between 1000 and 1300 BCE. Mainly pastoral and desert dwellers, the Baluch are also Sunni Muslim.
Nuristani
The Nuristani are an Indo-Aryan people, representing a third branch independent of the Aryan peoples groups, who live in isolated regions of northeastern Afghanistan as well as across the border in the district of Chitral in Pakistan. Better known historically as the Kafirs of what was once known as Kafiristan (land of pagans), they were forcibly converted to Islam during the rule of Amir Abdur Rahman the iron and their country was renamed "Nuristan" or "Land of Light" as in the light of Islam. A small unconquered portion of Kafiristan inhabited by the Kalash tribe who still practice their pre-Islamic religion still exists across the border in Pakistan on highlands. Many Nuristanis believe that they are the descendants of Alexander's Greeks, but there is a lack of genetic evidence for this and they are more than likely an isolated pocket of early Aryan invaders. They are largely Sunni Muslims.
Culture
Language
There are a variety of languages in Afghanistan of which the largest and official ones are Persian (Dari) and Pashto. Other significant languages include the Turkmen and the Uzbek languages.
Religion
About 99% of Afghanistan's population is Muslim with the majority as Sunni Muslims. Approximately 15% are Shiites. Before Islam's arrival, the region was predominantly Zoroastrian and Buddhist. Recent media attention to the arrest of a Christian convert indicates that there is a very small community of Christians living inside and outside Afghanistan
Additional demographic information
Nationality
- Noun: Afghanistani
- Adjective: Afghanistanis
Population
- 31,056,997 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure
- 0-14 years: 44.6% (male 7,095,117/female 6,763,759)
- 15-64 years: 53% (male 8,436,716/female 8,008,463)
- 65 years and over: 2.4% (male 366,642/female 386,300) (2006 est.)
Median age
- Total: 17.6 years
- Male: 17.6 years
- Female: 17.6 years (2006 est.)
Population growth rate
- 2.67% (2006 est.)
Birth rate
- 46.6 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate
- 20.34 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Net migration rate
- 0.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Gender 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: 0.95 male(s)/female
- Total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate
- Total: 160.23 deaths/1,000 live births
- Male: 164.77 deaths/1,000 live births
- Female: 155.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
- Total population: 46 years (2004 est.)[6]
- Male: 46 years
- Female: 46 years
Total fertility rate
- 6.69 children born/woman (2006 est.)
HIV/AIDS
- HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.01% (2001 est.)
- HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 61 (as of 2006)
- HIV/AIDS - deaths: 4
Major infectious diseases
- degree of risk: high
- food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
- vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk countrywide below 2,000 meters from March through November
- animal contact disease: rabies (2005)
Ethnic groups
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Languages spoken
An approximate distribution of languages based on the CIA World Factbook[2] is as following:
- Persian (Dari): 50% (official language of the country)
- Pashto: 35% (official language of the country)
- Turkic languages (primarily Uzbeki and Turkmeni) 11%
- 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi, Pashai, and Nuristani) 4%
- much bilingualism
Literacy
- Definition: Age 15 and over can read and write
- Total population: 36%
- Male: 51%
- Female: 21% (1999 est.)
Religions
- Islam - Approximately 99% of Population
- Sunni Muslim: 80%
- Shi'a Muslim: 19%
- Other: 1%
- Hinduism
- Sikhism
- Buddhism: 0.3%
- Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic)
- Judaism (one known individual: Zablon Simintov)
Notes and references
- ^ Dupree, L. "Afghānistān: (iv.) ethnocgraphy". In Ehsan Yarshater (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica (Online Edition ed.). United States: Columbia University.
{{cite encyclopedia}}:|edition=has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help); Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c "Afghanistan". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. December 13, 2007.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "CIA" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ afghanistani. Dictionary.com. WordNet® 3.0. Princeton University. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/afghanistani (accessed: November 25, 2007).
- ^ afghani. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/afghani (accessed: November 13, 2007).
- ^ Vogelsang, Willem. 2002. The Afghans. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford. ISBN 0-631-19841-5
- ^ BBC News In Depth - Life in Afghanistan (Health)...Link
- Template:CIA WFB 2006
This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.
Further reading
- Jawad, Nassim. Afghanistan: A Nation of Minorities. London: Minority Rights Group, 1992. ISBN 0-946690-76-6.
See also
