Demography

Largest cities

The only city in Afghanistan with over one million residents is its capital, Kabul. The other major cities in the country are, in order of population size, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, Jalalabad, Ghazni and Kunduz.

Ethnic groups

Ethnic groups of Afghanistan (percentages are from Encyclopædia Iranica and CIA World Factbook) 39.4% to 42% Pashtun 27% to 33.7% Tajik 8.0% to 9% Hazara 8.0% to 9% Uzbek 3.2% to 4% Aimak 3% Turkmen 1.6% to 4% Baloch 4% to 9.2% other (Pashai, Nuristani, Brahui, Hindkowans, Hindustani, etc.)
The population of Afghanistan is divided into a wide variety of ethnic groups. Because a systematic census has not been held in the country in decades, exact figures about the size and composition of the various ethnic groups are not available. Therefore most figures are approximations only.
An approximate distribution of ethnic groups estimated by the CIA World Factbook is as following:
Pashtun: 42%
Tajik: 27%
Hazara: 9%
Uzbek: 9%
Aimak: 4%
Turkmen: 3%
Baloch: 2%
Other: 4%
Based on official census numbers from the 1960s to the 1980s, as well as information found in mainly scholarly sources, the Encyclopædia Iranica gives the following list:
39.4% Pashtun
33.7% Tajik, Farsiwan, and Qezelbash
8.0% Hazara
8.0% Uzbek
4.1% Aimak
3.3% Turkmen
1.6% Baloch
1.9% other

Languages
The CIA World Factbook on languages spoken in Afghanistan is shown in the right image box. Persian (Dari dialects) 50% and Pashto 35%; both are Indo-European languages from the Iranian languages sub-family. Pashto and Persian are the official languages of the country. Hazaragi, spoken by the Hazara minority, is another dialect of Persian. Other languages spoken include Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 9%, as well as 30 minor languages 4% (primarily Balochi, Nuristani, Pashai, Brahui, Pamiri languages, Hindko, etc.). Bilingualism is common.
According to the Encyclopædia Iranica, the Persian language is the mother tongue of roughly one-third of Afghanistan's population, while it is also the most widely used language of the country, spoken by around 80% of the population. It further states that Pashto is spoken by around 50% of the population.

Languages of Afghanistan (percentages are from CIA World Factbook) 50% Persian (Dari) 35% Pashto 8% Uzbek 3% Turkmen 4% Balochi 2% other (Nuristani, Pashai, Brahui, etc.)

Culture



Afghans display pride in their religion, country, ancestry, and above all, their independence. Like other highlanders, Afghans are regarded with mingled apprehension and condescension, for their high regard for personal honor, for their clan loyalty and for their readiness to carry and use arms to settle disputes. As clan warfare and internecine feuding has been one of their chief occupations since time immemorial, this individualistic trait has made it difficult for foreign invaders to hold the region.
Afghanistan has a complex history that has survived either in its current cultures or in the form of various languages and monuments. However, many of the country's historic monuments have been damaged in recent wars. The two famous statues of Buddha in the Bamyan Province were destroyed by the Taliban, who regarded them as idolatrous. Other famous sites include the cities of Kandahar, Herat, Ghazni and Balkh. The Minaret of Jam, in the Hari River valley, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The cloak worn by Muhammad is stored inside the famous Khalka Sharifa in Kandahar City.
Buzkashi is a national sport in Afghanistan. It is similar to polo and played by horsemen in two teams, each trying to grab and hold of a goat carcass. Afghan hounds (a type of running dog) also originated in Afghanistan.
Although literacy levels are very low, classic Persian poetry plays a very important role in the Afghan culture. Poetry has always been one of the major educational pillars in Iran and Afghanistan, to the level that it has integrated itself into culture. Persian culture has, and continues to, exert a great influence over Afghan culture. Private poetry competition events known as “musha’era” are quite common even among ordinary people. Almost every home owns one or more poetry collections of some sort, even if they are not read often.
The eastern dialects of the Persian language are popularly known as "Dari". The name itself derives from "Pārsī-e Darbārī", meaning Persian of the royal courts. The ancient term Darī – one of the original names of the Persian language – was revived in the Afghan constitution of 1964, and was intended to signify that Afghans consider their country the cradle of the language. Hence, the name Fārsī, the language of Fārs, is strictly avoided. With this point in mind, we can consider the development of Dari or Persian literature in the political entity known as Afghanistan."
Many of the famous Persian poets of the tenth to fifteenth centuries stem from Khorasan where is now known as Afghanistan. They were mostly also scholars in many disciplines like languages, natural sciences, medicine, religion and astronomy.
Mawlānā Rumi, who was born and educated in Balkh in the thirteenth century and moved to Konya in modern-day Turkey
Rabi'a Balkhi (the first poetess in the History of Persian Poetry, tenth century, native of Balkh)
Daqiqi Balkhi (tenth century, native of Balkh)
Farrukhi Sistani (tenth century, the Ghaznavids royal poet)
Unsuri Balkhi (a tenth/eleventh century poet, native of Balkh)
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (eleventh century, from Herat)
Nasir Khusraw (eleventh century, from Qubadyan near Balkh)
Anvari (twelfth century, lived and died in Balkh)
Sanā'ī Ghaznawi (twelfth century, native of Ghazni)
Jāmī of Herāt (fifteenth century, native of Herat in western Afghanistan), and his nephew Abdullah Hatifi Herawi, a well-known poet
Alī Sher Navā'ī (fifteenth century, Herat).
Most of these individuals were of Persian (Tājīk) ethnicity who still form the second-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Also, some of the contemporary Persian language poets and writers, who are relatively well-known in Persian-speaking world, include Ustad Betab, Qari Abdullah, Khalilullah Khalili, Sufi Ghulam Nabi Ashqari, Sarwar Joya, Qahar Asey, Parwin Pazwak and others. In 2003, Khaled Hosseini published The Kiterunner which though fiction, captured much of the history, politics and culture experienced in Afghanistan from the 1930s to present day.
In addition to poets and authors, numerous Persian scientists were born or worked in the region of present-day Afghanistan. Most notable was Avicenna (Abu Alī Hussein ibn Sīnā) whose father hailed from Balkh. Ibn Sīnā, who travelled to Isfahan later in life to establish a medical school there, is known by some scholars as "the father of modern medicine". George Sarton called ibn Sīnā "the most famous scientist of Islam and one of the most famous of all races, places, and times." His most famous works are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, also known as the Qanun. Ibn Sīnā's story even found way to the contemporary English literature through Noah Gordon's The Physician, now published in many languages. Moreover, according to Ibn al-Nadim, Al-Farabi, a well-known philosopher and scientist, was from the Faryab Province of Afghanistan, .
Before the Taliban gained power, the city of Kabul was home to many musicians who were masters of both traditional and modern Afghan music, especially during the Nauroz-celebration. Kabul in the middle part of the twentieth century has been likened to Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The tribal system, which orders the life of most people outside metropolitan areas, is potent in political terms. Men feel a fierce loyalty to their own tribe, such that, if called upon, they would assemble in arms under the tribal chiefs and local clan leaders (Khans). In theory, under Islamic law, every believer has an obligation to bear arms at the ruler's call (Ulul-Amr).
Heathcote considers the tribal system to be the best way of organizing large groups of people in a country that is geographically difficult, and in a society that, from a materialistic point of view, has an uncomplicated lifestyle.

Religions

Religiously, Afghans are over 99% Muslims: approximately 74-80% Sunni and 19-25% Shi'a (estimates vary). Up until the mid-1980s, there were about 30,000 to 150,000 Hindus and Sikhs living in different cities, mostly in Jalalabad, Kabul, and Kandahar.
There was a small Jewish community in Afghanistan who fled the country after the 1979 Soviet invasion, and only one individual, Zablon Simintov, remains today.