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, 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. KARZAI was re-elected in August 2009 for a second term. 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.

Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran

slightly smaller than Texas

arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers

mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest

natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones

damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; flooding; droughts

limited natural freshwater resources; inadequate supplies of potable water; soil degradation; overgrazing; deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building materials); desertification; air and water pollution

landlocked; the Hindu Kush mountains that run northeast to southwest divide the northern provinces from the rest of the country; the highest peaks are in the northern Vakhan (Wakhan Corridor)

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

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, but Dari functions as the lingua franca

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

30,419,928 (July 2012 est.)

39.3 births/1,000 population (2012 est.)

14.59 deaths/1,000 population (July 2012 est.)

-2.51 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2012 est.)

KABUL (capital) 3.573 million (2009)

460 deaths/100,000 live births (2010)

5.64 children born/woman (2012 est.)

0.21 physicians/1,000 population (2009)

0.4 beds/1,000 population (2009)

urban: 78% of population

rural: 39% of population

total: 48% of population

urban: 22% of population

rural: 61% of population

total: 52% of population (2008)

urban: 60% of population

rural: 30% of population

total: 37% of population

urban: 40% of population

rural: 70% of population

total: 63% of population

34 provinces (welayat, singular - welayat); Badakhshan, Badghis, Baghlan, Balkh, Bamyan, Daykundi, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand, Herat, Jowzjan, Kabul, Kandahar, Kapisa, Khost, Kunar, Kunduz, Laghman, Logar, Nangarhar, Nimroz, Nuristan, Paktika, Paktiya, Panjshir, Parwan, Samangan, Sar-e Pul, Takhar, Uruzgan, Wardak, Zabul

19 August 1919 (from UK control over Afghan foreign affairs)

Independence Day, 19 August (1919)

sixth constitution drafted 14 December 2003 - 4 January 2004; signed 16 January 2004; ratified 26 January 2004

mixed legal system of civil, customary, and Islamic law

has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; accepts ICCt jurisdiction

18 years of age; universal

the bicameral National Assembly consists of the Meshrano Jirga or House of Elders (102 seats, two-thirds of members elected from provincial councils for 4-year terms, and one-third nominated by the president for 5-year terms) and the Wolesi Jirga or House of People (no more than 250 seats; members directly elected for five-year terms)

note - the Ministry of Justice licensed 84 political parties as of December 2012

ADB, CICA, CP, ECO, EITI (candidate country), FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (NGOs), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITSO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OSCE (partner), SAARC, SACEP, SCO (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)

three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), red, and green, with the national emblem in white centered on the red band and slightly overlapping the other two bands; the center of the emblem features a mosque with pulpit and flags on either side, below the mosque are numerals for the solar year 1298 (1919 in the Gregorian calendar, the year of Afghan independence from the UK); this central image is circled by a border consisting of sheaves of wheat on the left and right, in the upper-center is an Arabic inscription of the Shahada (Muslim creed) below which are rays of the rising sun over the Takbir (Arabic expression meaning "God is great"), and at bottom center is a scroll bearing the name Afghanistan; black signifies the past, red is for the blood shed for independence, and green can represent either hope for the future, agricultural prosperity, or Islam

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. Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan is extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs. Criminality, insecurity, weak governance, lack of infrastructure, and the Afghan Government's difficulty in extending rule of law to all parts of the country pose challenges to future economic growth. Afghanistan's living standards are among the lowest in the world. The international community remains committed to Afghanistan's development, pledging over $67 billion at nine donors' conferences between 2003-10. In July 2012, the donors at the Tokyo conference pledged an additional $16 billion in civilian aid through 2016. Despite this help, the Government of Afghanistan will need to overcome a number of challenges, including low revenue collection, anemic job creation, high levels of corruption, weak government capacity, and poor public infrastructure.

$33.55 billion (2012 est.)

$30.22 billion (2011 est.)

$28.57 billion (2010 est.)

$19.85 billion (2012 est.)

15 million (2004 est.)

11.3% of GDP (2012 est.)

-8.7% of GDP (2011 est.)

15.03% (31 December 2011 est.)

15.69% (31 December 2010 est.)

$5.928 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$5.307 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$6.351 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$5.671 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$363.6 million (31 December 2008 est.)

$20.06 million (31 December 2007 est.)

opium, wheat, fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins, lambskins

-$743.9 million (2011 est.)

-$736 million (2010 est.)

$376 million (2012 est.)

$388 million (2011 est.)

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

Pakistan 48%, India 19%, Russia 9%, Iran 5% (FY11/12 est.)

$6.39 billion (2012 est.)

$5.154 billion (2011 est.)

machinery and other capital goods, food, textiles, petroleum products

Pakistan 13.7%, Russia 12.6%, Uzbekistan 11.5%, Iran 9.1% (FY11/12 est.)

$5.268 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$4.174 billion (2010 est.)

$1.28 billion (FY10/11)

$2.7 billion (FY08/09)

afghanis (AFA) per US dollar -

21 December - 20 December

913.1 million kWh (2009 est.)

2.226 billion kWh (2009 est.)

1.377 billion kWh (2009 est.)

489,100 kW (2009 est.)

23.5% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

76.5% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

1,950 bbl/day (2012 est.)

0 bbl/day (2009 est.)

87 million bbl (1 January 2012 est.)

0 bbl/day (2008 est.)

4,229 bbl/day (2011 est.)

0 bbl/day (2008 est.)

5,193 bbl/day (2008 est.)

30 million cu m (2010 est.)

49.55 billion cu m (1 January 2012 est.)

790,200 Mt (2010 est.)

17.558 million (2011)

state-owned broadcaster, Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), operates a series of radio and television stations in Kabul and the provinces; an estimated 150 private radio stations, 50 TV stations, and about a dozen international broadcasters are available (2007)

Internet access is growing through Internet cafes as well as public "telekiosks" in Kabul (2005)

1,200 km; (chiefly Amu Darya, which handles vessels up to 500 DWT) (2011)

Kheyrabad, Shir Khan

Afghan Armed Forces: Afghan National Army (ANA, includes Afghan Air Force (AAF)) (2011)

22 years of age; inductees are contracted into service for a 4-year term (2005)

Afghan, Coalition, and Pakistan military meet periodically to clarify the alignment of the boundary on the ground and on maps; Afghan and Iranian commissioners have discussed boundary monument densification and resurvey; Iran protests Afghanistan's restricting flow of dammed Helmand River tributaries during drought; Pakistan has sent troops across and built fences along some remote tribal areas of its treaty-defined Durand Line border with Afghanistan which serve as bases for foreign terrorists and other illegal activities; Russia remains concerned about the smuggling of poppy derivatives from Afghanistan through Central Asian countries

world's largest producer of opium; while poppy cultivation was relatively stable at 119,000 hectares in 2010, a poppy blight affecting the high cultivation areas in 2010 reduced potential opium production to 3,200 metric tons, down over 40 percent from 2009; the Taliban and other antigovernment groups participate in and profit from the opiate trade, which is a key source of revenue for the Taliban inside Afghanistan; widespread corruption and instability impede counterdrug efforts; most of the heroin consumed in Europe and Eurasia is derived from Afghan opium; vulnerable to drug money laundering through informal financial networks; regional source of hashish (2008)