Provinces of Afghanistan

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Updates: 

I have found a Chinese gazetteer showing primary subdivisions. It enabled me to fill in the areas in the table for ~1982.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns new FIPS codes to the two new Afghan provinces, and changes the codes for the old provinces from which they were formed.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-7 was published on 2005-09-13. It lists the two new provinces of Afghanistan. The new ISO codes are shown in the table below.

The United Kingdom's Permanent Committee on Geographical Names has issued a paper  saying that the spelling Konduz is obsolete and Kondoz should now be used. It also says the capital of Nurestan is Kamdish.

Richard Pollard pointed out information concerning moving several districts from one province to another.

I added a table of provinces as of ~1982 to the Change history. The population data came from a USAID spreadsheet, from an Assistance Afghanistan  page. The data source cited was "LGA(CSO)" (probably Central Statistics Office).

Thanks to information from Clive Carpenter, Serhii Tymofiiev, and online sources, I have enough information to list the two newest provinces of Afghanistan: Daikondi and Panjshir. A 1990 estimate of the population of Daikondi was 127,661. A 2004 estimate of the population of Panjshir was 307,620.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2004-10-01. It assigns new FIPS codes to the two new provinces of Khowst and Nurestan, already acknowledged by ISO. It also changes the FIPS codes of the old provinces from which the two new provinces were formed. Details are below under Primary subdivisions and Change history.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-6, dated 2004-03-08, shows a change in the divisions of Afghanistan. Khowst and Nurestan now appear on the list. These provinces have been tentatively known for ten years or more. Their addition to the ISO list implies that they are now officially recognized. The new codes are shown below.

I found new data for the areas of the provinces of Afghanistan on a Web site  of the Food and Agriculture Organization, a U.N. agency. They are significantly different from the old figures.

Country overview: 

The external borders of Afghanistan have remained almost unchanged through the twentieth century. Its division into provinces, on the other hand, has changed frequently. The tendency has been to create more provinces over the years. Part of the border with Pakistan is in dispute.

Other names of country: 

The formal name of Afghanistan has changed several times recently. The new constitution, adopted on 2004-01-04, changed the name from "Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan" to "Islamic Republic of Afghanistan". In the past, the country was known as "Democratic Republic of Afghanistan", "Republic of Afghanistan", "Islamic State of Afghanistan", and (according to the Taliban) "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan". Some of the languages in the list below may need updating.

1. Danish: Afghanistan
2. Dutch: Afghanistan, Islamitische Republiek Afghanistan (formal)
3. English: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (formal)
4. Finnish: Afganistan
5. French: Afghanistan, République f islamique d'Afghanistan (formal)
6. German: Afghanistan n
7. Icelandic: Afganistan
8. Italian: Afghanistan m
9. Norwegian: Afghanistan, Den islamske stat Afghanistan (formal) (Bokmål), Den islamske staten Afghanistan (formal) (Nynorsk)
10. Portuguese: Afeganistão, República f Islâmica do Afeganistão m (formal)
11. Pushto: Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan (formal)
12. Spanish: Afganistán, República f de Afganistán m (formal)
13. Swedish: Afghanistan
14. Turkish: Afganistan

Origin of name: 

Land of the Afghani (ethnic name)

Primary subdivisions: 

Afghanistan is divided into 34 velayat (provinces).

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Afghanistan page.

Territorial extent: 

Badakhshan province contains the Wakhan (or Vakhan) Corridor, a narrow strip of land extending eastward to China.

Origins of names: 

1. Badghis: Persian badkhiz: home of the winds
2. Nurestan: = land of the enlightened

Change history: 

1. This is a table of the provinces of Afghanistan as of about 1950. Sources: Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1957 edition, and Kratkaya Geograficheskaya Entsiklopediya, Moscow, 1960.

1. By ~1957, the provinces of Ghazni (capital Ghazni), Girishk (Girishk), and Parvan (Charikar) had been formed.
2. ~1958: Sheberghan province was formed.
3. By 1964, the provinces of Badghis, Baghlan and Pul-i-Khumri, Bamian, Ghorat, Kalat, Kapisa, Konduz, Kunarha, Laghman, Lowgar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Oruzgan, Paktia, Samangan, Talugan, and Wardak and Maiden had been formed, and Eastern, Kataghan, and Southern had disappeared in the process.
4. 1964-04-30: Names of provinces changed as follows: Baghlan and Pul-i-Khumri became Baghlan; Ghorat became Ghor (Ghowr); Girishk became Helmand; Kalat became Zabul (Zabol); Kunarha became Konarha (Konar); Maimana became Faryab; Mazar-i-Sharif became Balkh; Shibarghan became Jowzjan; Talugan became Takhar; Wardak and Maiden became Wardak (Vardak).
5. ~1970: Name of capital of Helmand changed from Bost to Lashgar Gah.
6. ~1971: In 1966, the geographer of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the U.S. State Department wrote, "It has been proposed that a new province of Katawaz and Urugan be formed from part of Paktia Province." A development plan for Katawaz and Urugan was underway, so perhaps this proposal was to help administer the project. Katawaz-Urgun province is shown in the Times Atlas, 1971 edition. In later sources, Paktia province is restored to its original extent.
7. ~1972: Name of capital of Ghowr changed from Qala Ahangaran to Chaghcharan; name of capital of Laghman changed from Tigri to Mehtar Lam; capital of Oruzgan moved from Qala-Hazar Qadam to Tarin Kowt.
8. 1973-07-26: Formal name of country changed from Kingdom of Afghanistan to Republic of Afghanistan.
9. ~1975: Name of Chakhansur province changed to Nimruz.
10. ~1978: Capital of Kapisa moved from Tagab to Mahmud-e-Eraqi. Name of capital of Konar changed from Chigha Sarai to Asadabad. Formal name of country changed to Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
11. ~1982: Paktika province formed from parts of Ghazni and Paktia. The provinces of Afghanistan at that time were as follows.

1. ~1988: Many provincial boundaries adjusted. For example, northern Samangan, including the city of Kholm, transferred to Balkh.
2. 1988-04: Sar-e Pol province formed from parts of Balkh (former FIPS code AF04), Jowzjan (AF12), and Samangan (AF25).
3. 1988-07: Nurestan province formed from parts of Konar (former HASC code AF.KO, FIPS code AF15) and Laghman (AF.LM, AF16).
4. ~1995: Khowst province split from Paktia (former AF.PA, AF21).
5. ~1996: Capital of Lowgar moved from Baraki Barak to Pol-e 'Alam; capital of Paktika moved from Orgun to Sharan; capital of Vardak moved from Kowt-e-Ashrow to Maidanshahr. Probably later, capital of Baghlan moved from Baghlan to Pol-e Khomri. (This information is somewhat conjectural.)
6. 2004-03-28: Daikondi province split from Oruzgan (former AF.OR, AF20).
7. 2004-04-13: Panjshir province split from Parvan (former AF.PR, AF22). It includes the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul. The formation of these two provinces was an administrative decision and has not been ratified by Parliament.
8. 2004-06: According to the Afghanistan Information Management Service (AIMS, a UNDP offshoot), the president's office announced a change in administrative units from 32 to 34 provinces (addition of Daikondi and Panjshir), and from 329 to 397 districts. Kahmard district was moved from Baghlan to Bamian; Jaghatu district moved from Ghazni to Vardak; Gizab, Kijran, and Shahristan districts moved from Oruzgan to Daikondi; Nesh district moved from Oruzgan to Kandahar; Azra district moved from Paktia to Lowgar; and Shamul district moved from Paktia to Khowst.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Place names in the vernacular are written in Arabic characters. There are various methods for transliteration from Arabic to Latin alphabets, producing fairly predictable variant names.
2. Badakhshan: Badahšan (variant); Badakhchão (Portuguese); Badakhschan (German)
3. Badghis: Badghes, Badghisat, Badgis (variant)
4. Baghlan: Baglan, Bughlan (variant); Kataghan (obsolete +)
5. Balkh: Balh (variant); Mazar-i-Sharif, Mazar (obsolete +)
6. Bamian: Bamiyan (French); Bamyan (variant)
7. Daikondi: Daikundi, Daykondi, Daykundi (variant)
8. Faryab: Fariab (variant); Maimana, Meymaneh (obsolete +)
9. Ghazni: Gazni (variant)
10. Ghowr: Gawr, Ghore, Ghour, Ghur (variant); Ghor (French)
11. Helmand: Girishk (obsolete); Hilmand, Hilmend (variant)
12. Herat: Hirat (variant)
13. Jowzjan: Jaozjan, Jawzjan, Jozjan, Juzjan (variant); Jouzjan (French); Shibarghan (obsolete +)
14. Kabul: Cabul (Portuguese); Kâbil (Turkish); Kabol (variant); Kaboul (French)
15. Kandahar: Qandahar (obsolete)
16. Kapisa: Kapesa (variant)
17. Khowst: Khost (variant)
18. Konar: Konarha, Kunar, Kunarha (variant)
19. Kondoz: Konduz, Kunduz, Qonduz, Qunduz (obsolete)
20. Laghman: Lagman (variant)
21. Lowgar: Lawghar, Loghar (variant); Logar (French)
22. Nangarhar: Ningrahar (variant); Eastern Province (obsolete)
23. Nimruz: Neemroze, Nimrod, Nimrooz, Nimroze (variant); Nimroz (French); Chakhansur (obsolete)
24. Nurestan: Nooristan, Nuristan (variant); Nuristão (Portuguese)
25. Oruzgan: Urozgan (variant); Uruzgan (French)
26. Paktia: Paktiya (variant); Paktya (French variant); Southern Province (obsolete)
27. Panjshir: Panjsher (variant)
28. Parvan: Parwan (French); Charikar (obsolete +)
29. Sar-e Pol: Sar-e Pul, Saripol, Sari Pul (variant)
30. Takhar: Takar (variant)
31. Vardak: Meydan-Wardag, Verdak, Wardag, Wardak (variant); Wardak and Maiden (obsolete)
32. Zabol: Zabul, Zubul (variant); Zaboul (French variant)

+ = (name applied to a larger area containing the province)