Country Reports

Afghanistan

Highlights

Approximately 18% of the population is an Internet user.
As of 2023, the population of Afghanistan was 41,454,761. The United Nations defines it as a least developed country and a land-locked developing country.
Internet Society gives Afghanistan an overall Internet resilience score of 31%, which means it has low capacity to withstand unexpected faults or challenges to normal operation.
Out of the 1000 most-visited websites, 4% can be reached on a local server or cache in Afghanistan. This falls below Internet Society's target of 50%.
Afghanistan received a security preparedness score of 5.20 on the 2023 Global Cybersecurity Index. Its e-government system readiness score is 58%.

ccTLD

.af

Region: Asia
Sub-region: Southern Asia
Population: 41,454,761
Classification: Least Developed Country

Land Locked Developing Country

Low income country

Internet Usage
Network Infrastructure
Market Overview
Security

Internet Usage

Internet penetration

18%

of the population used the Internet at least once over a 3-month period

62%

Asia average

Average download speed

Based on an average of 300 users

3.15 Mbps

Broadband
4.99 Mbps

Mobile

Average Internet cost

11.10%

of average income (GNI) is needed to cover a low-consumption basket, using at least 3G technology.

Network Infrastructure

Mobile 4G and 5G coverage

65%

has access to at least one device with 4G mobile Internet
< 1%

has access to at least one device with 5G mobile Internet

Active networks

The building blocks of the Internet, identified by Autonomous System (AS) numbers.

active networks

International connections

Routes to the global Internet

Upstream diversity is

Very Good

More than 2 connections to the global Internet improves the ability to recover from unexpected events.

Adoption of IPv6

of users can access online resources using IPv6, the new generation of the Internet Protocol

39%

Asia average

Market Overview

Data centers

Number of data centers in operation

active data center

Internet Exchange Points

IXP in Afghanistan

Asia average

20% of 70

registered networks connect via an IXP

Total number of IXP members in Afghanistan

Locally cached content

of the top 1000 websites in Afghanistan can be accessed through an in-country server or cache

56%

Asia average

Top Internet service providers

Top Internet Service Providers (ISPs) by market share

GCN-DCN-AS AFGHANTELECOM GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION NETWORK: 27%
ROSHAN-AF Main Street, House No. 13 Wazir Akbar Khan: 16%
AWCC-AS-AP Afghan Wireless Communication Company: 16%
ETISALATAFG-AS-AP Etisalat Afghan: 13%
ATOMA-AS-AP MTNAFGHANISTAN: 9%

Digital public services rating

The UN's measure of a country's e-government ecosystem readiness

21%

Country-level domain use

4,400

domains registered using .af, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD).

Market competition

Good

market competitiveness for Internet customers and end users

Security

Global Cybersecurity Index

Estimates the ability of a country or economy to prevent and manage cyber incidents

5 / 100

Routing security practices

The use of resource public key infrastructure (RPKI), which connects IP prefixes to the correct autonomous system (AS)

ROA

Route origin authorization uses a cryptographic signature to certify network announcements

73%

of IPv4 prefixes protected
100%

of IPv6 prefixes protected

ROV

Route origin validation filters out route announcements

16%

of networks are using ROV to filter out invalid prefixes and networks

DNSSEC status

Active

DNSSEC coverage

< 1%

of all domains under the ccTLD are protected with DNSSEC

< 1%

Asia average

Adoption of DNSSEC

61%

of DNS queries are protected by DNSSEC, across all web traffic

37%

Asia average

Footnotes

The geographic boundaries and country names shown do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Internet Society concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities. Regions and Sub-Regions are taken from the UN Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use (Series M, No. 49).

Pulse uses the most recent possible data from international sources. For some indicators in Pulse, the source data may be updated more frequently. For more information on how often we update individual data points, see the Indicator page.

Internet Resilience Score

Based on measurements of infrastructure, security, performance, and market factors

31%

Updates to 2023 Resilience Index
We updated some of our calculations for the IRI, and it has affected scores for many countries. See more in the release notes.

Number of Internet shutdowns in the last 12 months

Estimated cost of a 1-day shutdown to GDP

1,141,544 USD