KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – More than 40 percent of Afghanistan’s urban population lives in Kabul, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
In a post on X on Sunday, the agency said that four out of every five of these residents live in informal, unplanned settlements. These areas often lack basic services like water, electricity, sanitation, and healthcare.
UN-Habitat warned that people in such settlements are highly vulnerable to extreme climate events such as floods and droughts.
It called for urgent action to address the impacts of climate change in Afghanistan’s growing urban centres.
Kabul, with an estimated population of five million, is one of the most overcrowded capitals in South Asia.
Years of conflict, poverty, and slow-paced urban development have driven many rural families to the city in search of better living conditions. Many have settled in slums on the city’s outskirts, where infrastructure is either weak or non-existent.
UN-Habitat earlier reported that only 25.25 percent of Afghanistan’s total population lives in cities.
That figure is expected to rise to 50 percent by 2060, driven by ongoing migration and population growth.
Urban planning in Afghanistan has failed to keep pace with this growth, leading to a rise in unregulated housing and limited access to public services.
Experts say Kabul’s urban system is under increasing strain, and without major investment, its fragile infrastructure may collapse.
The crisis is compounded by Afghanistan’s broader humanitarian emergency, with over two-thirds of the population now in need of aid, according to the UN.
