World geography › Southern Asia › Afghanistan
Afghanistan: map and facts
Afghanistan is in Southern Asia. It has about 43.8 million people (2025), the 36th largest population. It covers 652,870 km², the 40th largest by area. That is about 67 people per km². Its highest point is Nowshak, at 7,492 m. The longest river on its map is the Amu Darya, 2,620 km from source to mouth.
Facts
- Population: 43,844,111 (2025, World Bank)
- Area: 652,870 km² (2024, World Bank)
- Capital: Kabul
- Highest point: Nowshak, 7,492 m (Wikidata)
- Forest: 1.9% of the land (2024, World Bank)
Rivers
The longest rivers on the map of Afghanistan, with the length of each whole river (Wikidata):
- Amu Darya: 2,620 km
- Helmand: 1,150 km
- Panj: 921 km
Also on the map: Pamir and Harirud.
Mountains and landscapes
Its highest peaks:
- Nowshak: 7,492 m (its highest point)
- Shah Fuladi: 5,048 m
- Sikaram: 4,755 m
- Kuh-e Jang Qal'eh: 4,171 m
Mountain ranges: Hindu Kush, Paropamisus Range and Sulaiman Range.
Plateaus, plains, deserts and other regions: Baluchistan, Margo Desert and Rigestan.
Land
Land cover seen from satellites (NASA MODIS, 2024): bare ground 47.5%, grassland 37.5%, open shrubland 11.6%, farmland 1.7%.
Landforms, worked out from the height of the land (USGS GMTED2010): mountains 26.5%, plateaus 25.4%, high mountains 24.9%, hills 21.7%, plains 1.5%.
Forests covered 1.9% of its land in 2024, the same as in 1990 (World Bank).
Neighbours
Afghanistan shares land borders with China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on this map.
Explore the map of Afghanistan
In the game you can zoom into its rivers, mountains, minerals, terrain and forests. Free, with no sign-up.
Sources
India’s boundaries are drawn according to India’s official position, simplified for small-scale maps (data: Natural Earth, India view). Each figure shows its year and source; some are rounded. Data release 2026.2.
- Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com), public domain. Boundaries follow India's official position (Natural Earth's India point of view). Terms
- GMTED2010 courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey (Danielson and Gesch 2011, USGS Open-File Report 2011-1073). Terms
- Friedl, M., Sulla-Menashe, D. (2022). MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V061. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC. doi:10.5067/MODIS/MCD12Q1.061. Terms
- The World Bank: World Development Indicators, Population, total (SP.POP.TOTL): UN Population Division, national statistical offices (2025 data, retrieved 2026-10-17). CC BY 4.0. Rounded by Make Me Smarter. Terms
- The World Bank: World Development Indicators, Surface area (AG.SRF.TOTL.K2): FAO (2024 data, retrieved 2026-10-17). CC BY 4.0. Terms
- The World Bank: World Development Indicators, Forest area (% of land area) (AG.LND.FRST.ZS): FAO, FAOSTAT (2024 data, retrieved 2026-10-17). CC BY 4.0. Rounded by Make Me Smarter. Terms
- Wikidata (CC0): names, capitals, peak heights and river lengths, checked by Make Me Smarter. Terms
- Landforms worked out by Make Me Smarter from GMTED2010.
- Some figures corrected by Make Me Smarter from published references: Australian Bureau of Statistics; Atlas of Canada; CIA World Factbook (archived); FAO; FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025; FSM Statistics; GeoNames; Gilbertson & Gilbertson's GPS surveys of national high points; INEGI (Mexico); Peaklist.org; PeakVisor; Government of the Pitcairn Islands; Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program; Statistics Finland; UN Demographic Yearbook; UN World Population Prospects 2024; Wikidata; Wikipedia.
Report a map problem: muraskaramit@gmail.com
More: every country and territory, and the Map quiz.