Fact sheet: population

• Out of 23.9 million people in Afghanistan, 48.8% are female (2009) [CSO]

• Females make up 49% of the population ages 0-19 and 43% of the population 60 years and over [UNIFEM]

• Afghanistan ranked 174 out of 178 countries in the 2005 Human Development Index (HDI) [NHDR 07]

• The 2005 Gender Development Index for Afghanistan is the lowest in South Asia at 0.310 [HDR 07]

• The average woman had 6.3 children in 2003 [UNIFEM]