Taliban Rejects UN’s 48.6 Million Population Estimate for Afghanistan, Claims 37.2 Million
The Taliban’s Department of Statistics and Information has rejected the United Nations’ latest estimate of Afghanistan’s population, stating that the current population of the country is 37.2 million. This contradicts the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which estimated Afghanistan’s population this year at 48.6 million on July 11.
Mohammad Halim Rafi, spokesperson for the Taliban’s Department of Statistics, said that according to their data, 49% of the population are women and 51% are men. He added that around 1.5 million are nomads and nearly 8 million Afghans living abroad as migrants are not included in this year’s statistics.
OCHA has stated that these figures are used for planning humanitarian aid. Available information indicates that the large-scale return of Afghan migrants from Iran and Pakistan has been a significant factor in the increased population estimate.
The Taliban’s Department of Statistics claims that some international organizations inflate the population numbers to attract more humanitarian aid. However, experts attribute the difference between these figures to differing calculation methods. According to them, OCHA considers both residents inside the country and returnees in its calculations, while the UN’s general estimates rely on long-term data related to births, deaths, and migration.
The absence of a comprehensive and reliable population registration system in Afghanistan, combined with the continuous movement of people across borders, has always made it difficult to produce accurate population statistics. This issue has remained unresolved following the Taliban’s takeover, casting a shadow over the transparency of both national and international planning efforts.
