_#_Land use: arable land 12%; permanent crops NEGL%; meadows and pastures 46%; forest and woodland 3%; other 39%; includes irrigated NEGL%

_#_Environment: damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; soil degradation, desertification, overgrazing, deforestation, pollution

_#_Note: landlocked

_*People #_Population: US Bureau of the Census—16,450,304 (July 1991), growth rate 5.2% (1991) and excludes 3,750,796 refugees in Pakistan and 1,607,281 refugees in Iran; note—another report indicates a July 1990 population of 16,904,904, including 3,271,580 refugees in Pakistan and 1,277,700 refugees in Iran

_#_Birth rate: 44 births/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Death rate: 20 deaths/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Net migration rate: 28 migrants/1,000 population (1991); note—there are flows across the border in both directions, but data are fragmentary and unreliable

_#_Infant mortality rate: 164 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)

_#_Life expectancy at birth: 44 years male, 43 years female (1991)

_#_Total fertility rate: 6.3 children born/woman (1991)