1in8B › Odds by country › Afghanistan

If you were born in Afghanistan

1 in 89 babies on Earth is born in Afghanistan, about 1.49 million a year. If your birthplace were drawn by lot, you would be born here with a chance of 1 in 89. Below is what awaits a child born here, according to the statistics, and three lives lived here in the game.

What stands out here

People here live 7.2 years less than the world average: 66.3 years against 73.5 years.
5.3 in 100 children here die before age five, 1.4 times the world average.
The World Bank classes it as a low-income country. There are 25 such countries, and 19 in 100 of the world’s babies are born in them.
Women here have 4.8 children on average; the world average is 2.2.
Maternal mortality is among the ten highest in the world: 521 per 100,000 births.
The birth rate here is among the ten highest in the world.
Literacy here is among the ten lowest in the world: 37 in 100 adults can read and write.
It is one of the ten most rural countries in the world: 26 in 100 people live in cities.

The odds in numbers

Indicator	Afghanistan	World
Births a year	1,492,961	132,315,943
Chance of being born here	1 in 89	—
Life expectancy, men	64.7 years	71 years
Life expectancy, women	67.8 years	75.9 years
Die before age 1, per 100 children	4.8	2.8
Die before age 5, per 100 children	5.3	3.7
Die between ages 15 and 60, per 100 men	22	17
Die between ages 15 and 60, per 100 women	18	11
Maternal deaths per 100,000 births	521	187
Children per woman	4.8	2.2
GDP per person a year, at purchasing power parity	$2,240	$25,400
Income inequality, Gini index (0–100)	29	—
Can read and write, per 100 adults	37	86
Average years of schooling, adults	2.5 years	8.4 years
University enrolment, gross ratio (can exceed 100)	11	48
Married before 18, per 100 young women	29	16
Live in cities, per 100	26	58
Work in farming, per 100 workers	52	27
Working or looking for work, per 100 women	5.1	48
Living with HIV, per 100 adults aged 15–49	0.1	0.7
Homicides per 100,000 people a year	4	4.8
Road deaths per 100,000 people a year	23.9	15
Suicides per 100,000 people a year	3.6	9.1
Use tobacco, per 100 adults	22	20
Born in another country, per 100 residents	0.2	3.7
Life evaluation, 0 to 10	1.5	5.4

“World” is the average weighted by population, and by births for child and maternal mortality. ≈ marks an estimate: there is no published figure for this country.

Three lives lived here in the game

This is how the life of a child born in Afghanistan could turn out. The game lived 20 lives on its own, with no player, by this country’s numbers. Here are three of them: one of the shortest, the middle one and one of the longest.

Nazia Rahimi
Born in 2026 in rural Afghanistan, into one of the poorest families. Education: never went to school. 10 years of work, last as farmer with your own land and hired help. Married. 4 children. Age at death: 23 years. Cause: complications of childbirth.
Mahmood Wardak
Born in 2026 in rural Afghanistan, into a family of modest means. Education: primary school. 51 years of work. Married. 2 children. 5 grandchildren. Age at death: 71 years. Cause: kidney disease.
Zahra Safi
Born in 2026 in rural Afghanistan, into one of the richest families. Education: lower secondary school. 58 years of work. Married. 6 children. 41 grandchildren. Age at death: 87 years. Cause: a stroke.

These people are made up, and three lives are not statistics. The real numbers are in the table above.

You cannot pick a country in 1in8B: the draw decides. This one comes up with a chance of 1 in 89.

Be born

Other countries

Data: the UN, the World Bank (release of October 8, 2026), WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, the ILO and the World Happiness Report. Where the numbers come from and what in the game is real