Census Populations in 19th Century Afghanistan"

By Dr. Najibullah Anwar, Phil. M.A.

Abdurrahman Khan, when he came to power, did not know how many people he ruled over. In 1884, he aimed to prevent tax evasion and draft people for the army. He assigned the task of counting the population to Ulemas, Qasis, and Mullahs. In some regions, the census was conducted by officials, claiming to use a sampling method, which was not 100% accurate but fell within the 80-90% range.

In 1884, Abdurrahman reported a population of eight million. In 1876, during the reign of Amir Sher Ali Khan, a census was conducted, excluding the regions of the Kafirs and Arabs, and the population was reported as 4,004,000.

The government of India reported a total population of 6,100,000 in 1906.

From 1880 to 1890, the census was taken in Kandahar three times. These census records were considered highly reliable and reported a population of 30,000.(1)

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1.M. Hasan Kakar, Government and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir ʿAbd al-Rahman Khan (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), P.181-184.