Demographics of Afghanistan
As of 2016, the total population of Afghanistan is around 33,332,025, which includes the 3 million Afghan nationals living in both Pakistan and Iran. Afghanistan's Central Statistics Organization (CSO) stated in 2011 that the total number of Afghans living inside Afghanistan was about 26 million and by 2017 it reached 29.2 million. Of this, 15 million are males and 14.2 million are females. About 22% of the population is urbanite and the remaining 78% live in rural areas.
War in Afghanistan (1978–present)
The Soviet war had a damaging impact on Afghanistan. Soviet forces and their proxies committed a genocide against the Afghan people and killed up to 2 million Afghans. 5–10 million Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran, which was 1/3 of the prewar population of the country, and another 2 million were displaced within the country. Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province functioned as an organisational and networking base for the anti-Soviet Afghan resistance, with the province's influential Deobandi ulama playing a major supporting role in promoting the 'jihad'.