State · 2002 – present

Afghanistan

A state of 2002 – present — 24 years, still standing in South Asia. The atlas records 43 things within it — wars and battles 23 · unrest and atrocity 7 · natural disasters 11 · people 2. Its line of rulers holds 5 people.

Still standing: the span runs to the year of the build, 2026.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood: 24 years; and still standing
Rulers: 5; the Supreme Leader of Afghanistan
Most ground: 644,100 km²; in 2006
Within it: 43; recorded rows
Symbols: 27; on record, with years

Map: Afghanistan in 2006, its borders in gold among its neighbours — Afghanistan in 2006, when it held the most ground the borders dataset draws for it: 644,100 km². Its neighbours wear their tints, as on the atlas's own map. Borders from Cliopatria (CC BY 4.0), coast and rivers from Natural Earth, cities from Reba, Reitsma & Seto 2016 (CC BY 4.0), each city under the name it bore that year.

Where it sits in time

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold.

Rulers

The line of Supreme Leader of Afghanistan - the office this state names as its head of state.

killed, executed or dead in battleleft alive by a regular roadstill in officeending not on recorda second row: a reign that began before the last had ended — rival claimants, or a shared throne

Ruler	Reign	Length	How it ended · source
Mullah Omar	1996 – 2001	5 years	left office aliveread off the dates alone
Burhanuddin Rabbani	2001 – 2001	under a year	left office aliveread off the dates alone
Ashraf Ghani	2014 – 2021	7 years	ending not on record
Akhtar Mansur	2015 – 2016	1 year	killedWikidata's manner of death
Hibatullah Akhundzada	2021 – in office	in office since 2021	still in office

5 rulers, 5 with terms dated as terms, covering 1996 – 2021. Only 25 years of the line are dated - too short for a median. 2 of 4 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. The violent-handover count is withheld: power changed hands so often that any rising falls beside one (exposure 0.81, limit 0.6). A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Heads of government

The line of Prime Minister of Afghanistan, drawn and never measured: a cabinet is not a reign.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar	lived 1949 – …
Mullah Omar	1996 – 2001
Mohammad Rabbani	1996 – 2001
Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai	1997 – 1997
Abdul Kabir	2001 – 2001
Hasan Akhund	2021 – 2023
Hasan Akhund	2023 – …
Abdul Kabir	2023 – 2023

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

644,100 km² in 2007, 644,100 km² in 2022; at its largest 644,100 km² in 2007. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

Flags and arms, in order

Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.

flag, undatedFlag of Afghanistan (1909–1926) · Public domain
flag, 1709 – 1738Flag of Afghanistan (1880–1901) · Public domain
flag, 1747 – 1862Flag of Herat until 1842 · Public domain
flag, 1880 – 1901Flag of Afghanistan (1880–1901) · Public domain
flag, 1901 – 1919Flag of Afghanistan (1901–1919) · Public domain
flag, 1926 – 1928Flag of Afghanistan (1926–1928) · Public domain
flag, 1928 – 1929Flag of Afghanistan (1928–1929) · Public domain
flag, 1928 – 1928Flag of Afghanistan (1928) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fornax .
flag, 1929 – 1929Flag of Afghanistan (1929) · Public domain
flag, 1929 – 1930Flag of Afghanistan (1929–1931) · Public domain
flag, 1930 – 1973Flag of Afghanistan (1931–1973) · Public domain
flag, 1973 – 1974Flag of Afghanistan (1973–1974) · Public domain

15 more in the atlas.

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

2000 – 209941 rows · 23 wars and battles · 7 risings, regime changes and massacres

Fall of Kabul · battle · 2021
2026 Afghanistan–Pakistan war · war · 2026
2025 Kunar earthquake · disaster · 2025
June 2022 Afghanistan earthquake · disaster · 2022
2023 Herat earthquakes · disaster · 2023
Resolute Support Mission · battle · 2014 – 2021
Operation Moshtarak · battle · 2010
Republican insurgency in Afghanistan · unrest · 2021

and 33 more in the atlas.

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

How long it stood24 years
stood longer than 24% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.
The most ground it held644,100 km²
held more ground at its peak than 78% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.
Wars recorded per century3.0
had more wars on record per century than 99% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.
Rulers on record5
has more rulers on record than 64% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

What led to it, and what came of it

The investigation's own picture: 16 causes the record names and 0 results, the strongest six of each at their own years, joined to the state by the kind of claim - a recorded statement solid, the article's sentence dashed, a theory dash-dot.

linkedcoincidence

Open the investigation: every row with its evidence, the conditions at the time, the theories condition by condition, and the succession analysed.

Open in the atlas

On the timeline, 1992 – 2036, with everything that stood beside it.
On the map in 2006, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.

Wikidata Q889 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.