Languages of Afghanistan

KabulLocal time

Languages, writing systems and language context

افغانستان

COUNTRY LANGUAGE PROFILE

پښتو

Pashto

Text direction: RTL

Dari and Pashto are official, with additional languages receiving regional official recognition where they are spoken by major local populations.

Core languages shown

Country-level reference set

Pashto

First listed core language

Not a speaker-share estimate

Writing systems represented

Across the core language set

RTL

Primary text direction

Additional directions noted below

Language Overview

PashtoDari

Read the Characters

Pashto · 43 characters

How to Read the Language Landscape

PolicyLegal and administrative language status may differ between national and subnational government.

Everyday useA language can be socially dominant without being the only language used at home, school, work or in media.

Community diversityIndigenous, minority, migrant and sign languages can remain important even when they are not part of a short national headline list.

Frequently Asked Questions

What languages are used in Afghanistan?

Dari and Pashto are official, with additional languages receiving regional official recognition where they are spoken by major local populations.

What writing systems are used in Afghanistan?

The represented writing system is Arabic, Perso-Arabic and the primary direction shown is right to left.

Sources & methodology

View sources used for this page

Afghanistan Ministry of Justice: Enforced Constitution

Primary government constitutional source. Article 16 states that Pashto and Dari are the official languages of the state and provides for specified regional third-official-language status.

Unicode CLDR: Country/Region Names

Localized country display-name reference. CLDR names are customary UI/display names, not claims about a state’s full constitutional long-form name.

Unicode: Supported Scripts

Reference for the writing-system/script families represented in the character component.

Unicode: Writing Direction and Bidirectional Text

Reference for left-to-right and right-to-left script direction and bidirectional text behavior.

Unicode Character Database: NamesList

Reference for Unicode character names used as small readout labels under selected character samples; these labels are not presented as a complete transliteration standard.