Beautypically

Located between 60°30′ and 75° east longitude and 20°21′ and 38°30′ north latitude. The length of the country from west to east is St. 1350 km, and from north to south St. 900 km. Has no access to the sea. It borders with Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Pakistan. Afghanistan is a mountainous desert country located in the northeast of the Iranian Plateau, at its junction with the Central Asian mountain systems. In the northeast and in its center there are high mountains and mountain ranges of medium height, bounded from the north, west and south by desert plains and plateaus. Mountainous terrain occupies 80% of the country’s territory. Mountains: mountain systems – Hindu Kush (height 4-6 thousand m), Paropamiz (height up to 4 thousand m), South Turkestan mountains (height up to 4 thousand m), Suleiman mountains (height 3700 m), high-altitude plateau Khazarajat (600-900 m).

Rivers (km): Amu Darya (1250) with tributaries Kokcha (335) and Kunduz (400), Murghab (300), Helmand (1100) with tributary Argandab (450 m), Harirud (850), Farahrud (480), Kabul ( 280).

Plains – South Turkestan (along the left bank of the Amu Darya River to the Afghan-Iranian border), South Afghan.

The soils are serozems and burozems. Flora – desert and dry steppe vegetation, in the oases – orchards, vineyards, cotton crops, cereals and oilseeds, mulberries, willows and poplars. In the forests – oak, pine, Himalayan cedar, fir, spruce. Fauna – ungulates (wild goats, rams, gazelles, saiga), carnivores (snow leopard, leopard, wolf, fox, jackal), rodents, birds, reptiles, insects.

Minerals – natural gas (116.5 billion m3), coal (124 million tons), iron (2.5 billion tons), copper (10 million tons), chromium ore (500 thousand tons), lead-zinc ores (142 thousand tons), magnesite (66.3 million tons), bauxite (40 million tons), barite, mica, lapis lazuli, emeralds.

According to bridgat, the climate is continental, with large daily temperature fluctuations. The average amount of precipitation is 200-400 mm. Average temperature: in winter – from -15 ° С (in the Eastern Hindu Kush) to + 8 ° С (in Jalalabad), in summer – from + 9 ° С (in the Eastern Hindu Kush) to + 35 ° С (in Seistan).

Population of Afghanistan

Population dynamics over the past 10-20 years: the average annual population growth was 3.43%, including returning refugees (according to the 1979 census, the country’s population numbered 15.5 million people). Until 2002, the number of refugees was 5.5 million, of which 3.2 million were in Pakistan, 2.1 million were in Iran, and the rest were in India, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Western Europe, and the United States. Since 2001, 2.2 million refugees have returned to the country.

Birth rate 41‰. Child mortality 144 people per 1000 newborns, the average life expectancy is 46.6 years (for men – 47.3, for women – 45.8 years).

Age structure: 0-14 years old – 42%, 15-64 years old – 55.2%, over 65 years old and older – 2.8%. In the entire population: men – 51%, women – 49%; urban population – 16%, rural – 64%; retirement age is 60 years.

The number of literate people is 36% (among men 51%, among women 21%).

Ethnic composition (indicative data): Pashtuns (44%), Tajiks (28%), Hazaras (10%), Uzbeks (8%), Charaymaks (2.6%), Turkmens (2%), Balochs (0.5 %), Nuristanis (0.4%), Pashais (0.3%). During the civil war (1979-2001), the share of Pashtuns in the total population decreased by 6%, while the share of Tajiks increased by 4%.

Languages – Pashto (Pashto), Dari, Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi, Nuristani and Pamir languages, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Arabic, Pashai.

84% of Afghans profess Sunni Islam of the Hanafi persuasion, 15% are Shiites, the rest are Sikhs, Hindus, Zoroastrians, pagans. Sunnis include most of the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmens, part of the Charaimaks, Balochs, Nuristanis, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Pashays, Mughals, Brahuis. The Shiites are the Khazars, the Qizilbash, part of the Pashtuns, the mountain (Pamir) Tajiks, the Afshars, the Parsivans, and part of the Charaimaks. Among the Sunnis in the country, there are several Sufi orders – Qadiriya, Chashtiya, Suhravardiya, Naqshbandiya. Shiites have sects – Imamis, Ali-illahs and Ismailis. Of the religious minorities, the most numerous are the Sikhs (about 40 thousand people). The number of Muslim clergy is 260 thousand people.