The Kabul Tribune (KT) — Afghanistan's population has reached an estimated 37.2 million this year, according to the Taliban's National Statistics and Information Authority, which released new population estimates on Saturday.
The Taliban-controlled National Television quoted the agency's spokesperson, Mohammad Halim Rafe, as saying that men account for 51% of the population and women 49%.
Rafe said about 70% of the population, or nearly 26 million people, live in rural areas, while 26%, or about 9.8 million, reside in urban centers. The remaining 4%, approximately 1.5 million people, belong to Afghanistan's nomadic Kuchi communities.
According to the agency, Kabul remains the country's most populous province with 6.4 million residents, followed by Herat, with 2.4 million.
The authority said Afghanistan's population has grown by about 800,000 people, or 2.2%, compared with last year, when it estimated the country's population at 36.4 million.
The figures are based on statistical estimates, as Afghanistan has never conducted a nationwide census because of decades of conflict, political instability and logistical challenges.
The Taliban's estimate differs significantly from figures released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). In a report published Saturday, the U.N. mission estimated Afghanistan's population would reach 48.6 million in 2026, nearly 11 million more than the Taliban's estimate.
The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear. Different organizations often rely on varying methodologies and demographic models to estimate Afghanistan's population in the absence of an official national census.
