URBANIZATION
2000: 4.7 million
living in urban areas
2010: 7.3 million
living in urban areas
In 2012, Afghanistan had the 11th-fastest rate of urbanization in the world -- a trend that is expected to continue over the next 15 years. Returning refugees are increasingly choosing to move to cities in search of food, work, and security. And cities, with their trendy supermarkets, luxury skyscrapers and hotels, and growing slums, have been changing accordingly.
Nowhere is the rapid pace of urbanization more apparent than in Kabul. In 2001, Kabul's population was 1.2 million (some estimates place the figure as low as 500,000); today the capital has more than 5 million residents. Its streets, reports the New York Times, are clogged with 20 times as many cars as they were designed to handle. (Kabul's mayor is now working on a plan to expand the city to accommodate all the new residents.)
Above, traffic congestion near the main market area in downtown Kabul on Nov. 22, 2006.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
