Life in Afghanistan: Every Number That Shapes It (1800–2100)

To translate the statistics of a nation is to map the quiet progress of generations. These figures represent the changing realities of households navigating survival, where the essential reach of electricity at home has risen to 91 % and child mortality has seen a drastic decline from 280 to 38 per 1,000 births. Behind these data points is a cold but vital view of human security, quantifying how infrastructure and medicine have traveled to alter the fundamental conditions of existence for millions of people.

The historical arc is one of profound transformation. In the 1950s, a person lived with a life expectancy of 36 years and an average income per person of 1,000 intl-$. Today, that landscape has shifted as extreme poverty has fallen to 10 %. Years of schooling have climbed to 6.5 years, while children per woman have shifted to 2.3 births. This trajectory captures a departure from the mid-century experience, marked by a gradual access to global systems and internal development.

For a child born in the 2020s, the odds of survival have been rewritten. They enter a society where 35 % of the population lives in cities and 35 % have internet access. On an average income of 5,500 international dollars, they can expect to live 70 years, even if they still labor for 2,250 hours/year. This existence stands in stark contrast to the birth lottery of their ancestors, reflecting a world where the basic parameters of a human life have been fundamentally recalibrated.

Visit the project archives to compute your own parallel life in Afghanistan.