Compare
Afghanistan vs Iran
How Afghanistan and Iran compare on 39 measures, from 1789 to 2025. The main differences:
- Life expectancy · In 2023, Iran was higher: 77.7 years against 66 years
- GDP per person · In 2024, Iran was higher: $5,834 against $374
- Population · In 2023, Iran was higher: 90.6 million people against 41.5 million people
- Military spending · In 2021, Iran was higher: 2.32% of GDP against 1.83% of GDP
- CO₂ per person · In 2024, Iran was higher: 9.05 tonnes against 0.28 tonnes
Every measure
Health
- Life expectancyAfghanistan: 66 years in 2023Iran: 77.7 years in 2023
- Child mortalityAfghanistan: 5.3 per 100 live births in 2024Iran: 1.1 per 100 live births in 2024
- Infant mortalityAfghanistan: 44 per 1,000 live births in 2023Iran: 9.9 per 1,000 live births in 2023
- Safe drinking waterAfghanistan: 30% in 2022Iran: 94.2% in 2022
- DepressionAfghanistan: 4.14% in 2017Iran: 5.12% in 2017
- Suicide rateAfghanistan: 9.2 per 100,000 people in 2017Iran: 5.4 per 100,000 people in 2017
People
- PopulationAfghanistan: 41.5 million people in 2023Iran: 90.6 million people in 2023
- Population growthAfghanistan: 2.85% a year in 2023Iran: 1.12% a year in 2023
- Fertility rateAfghanistan: 4.84 births per woman in 2023Iran: 1.7 births per woman in 2023
- Urban populationAfghanistan: 25.9% in 2025Iran: 77.4% in 2025
- Median ageAfghanistan: 16.9 years in 2023Iran: 32.9 years in 2023
- People aged 65 and overAfghanistan: 2.4% in 2023Iran: 7.9% in 2023
- Net migration rateAfghanistan: -1.2 per 1,000 people in 2023Iran: 2.9 per 1,000 people in 2023
Economy
Education
Politics
Conflict
Military
- Military spendingAfghanistan: 1.83% of GDP in 2021Iran: 2.09% of GDP in 2025
- Military spending in US dollarsAfghanistan: $8.55M in 1977Iran: $7.45B in 2025
- Military spending per personAfghanistan: $7 in 2021Iran: $80 in 2025
- Military share of state spendingAfghanistan: 5% of government spending in 2020Iran: 11.2% of government spending in 2025
- Armed forces personnelAfghanistan: 165,000 people in 2020Iran: 650,000 people in 2020
- National powerAfghanistan: 0.29% of world capability in 2022Iran: 1.64% of world capability in 2022
- Armed forces, share of workersAfghanistan: 1.82% of the labour force in 2020Iran: 2.35% of the labour force in 2020
- Arms importsAfghanistan: 65 million TIV in 2021Iran: 42 million TIV in 2024
- Arms exportsAfghanistan: 1 million TIV in 1992Iran: 80 million TIV in 2025
Climate
Technology and environment
Each country on its own
Good to know
- Sources: UN, Gapminder and UN IGME, WHO/UNICEF, IHME, World Bank, IMF, UNESCO, Our World in Data, V-Dem, UCDP, SIPRI, IISS, Correlates of War, ERA5, CMIP6, EDGAR, ITU and FAO. Each measure’s page names its own and what it counts.
- Values are drawn on today’s borders. Years without a published value are left empty, never filled in.
How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Countries through time