Population Statistics
Further information: Afghan diasporaAs of 2012, the total population of Afghanistan is around 30,419,928, which includes the 2.7 million Afghan refugees that are living in Pakistan and Iran. In 2009, a nationwide survey conducted by the Afghan Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimated that the total number of Afghans living inside Afghanistan was about 24.5 million and by 2011 it reached 26 million. Of this, 5.7 million people were reported to be living in urban areas and the rest in rural or countryside.
A partial census conducted in 1979 showed roughly 15.5 million people living in the country. The Statistical Yearbook published in 1983 by the Babrak Karmal government claimed a total population of 15.96 million for 1981–82. Between 600,000 to 2 million Afghans were killed during the various 1979–2001 wars, majority of them during the Soviet war in the 1980s. At least 5 million more fled the country to neighboring countries. According to the Population Reference Bureau, the Afghan population is estimated to increase to 82 million by 2050.
Urban areas are experiencing rapid population growth since the Karzai administration began in late 2001, which is mainly due to the return of over 5 million expats. The only city in Afghanistan with over a million residents is its capital, Kabul. The other largest cities in the country are shown in the chart below.
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Largest cities or towns of Afghanistan 2010-11 estimate |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | City name | Province | Pop. | ||||||
Kabul
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1 | Kabul | Kabul Province | 3,071,400 | Herat
|
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| 2 | Kandahar | Kandahar Province | 512,000 | ||||||
| 3 | Herat | Herat Province | 397,456 | ||||||
| 4 | Mazar-i-Sharif | Balkh Province | 375,000 | ||||||
| 5 | Jalalabad | Nangarhar Province | 205,423 | ||||||
| 6 | Lashkar Gar | Helmand Province | 201,546 | ||||||
| 7 | Taloqan | Takhar Province | 196,400 | ||||||
| 8 | Khost | Khost Province | 160,214 | ||||||
| 9 | Sheberghan | Jowzjan Province | 148,329 | ||||||
| 10 | Ghazni | Ghazni Province | 141,000 | ||||||
Read more about this topic: Demography Of Afghanistan
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