Districts of Afghanistan

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. The reason given is: District boundaries have changed, most obviously Panjshir province which has not had that shape since ~2006. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2023) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Districts of Afghanistan" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Politics of Afghanistan
Constitution Taliban Islamic Movement Loya jirga ("Grand assembly") Human rights Human Rights Commission LGBT rights Treatment of women by the Taliban
Government Supreme Leader (list) Hibatullah Akhundzada (decrees) Prime Minister Hasan Akhund (acting) Deputy Leader Sirajuddin Haqqani (first) Mullah Yaqoob (second) Abdul Ghani Baradar (third) Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar (acting, first) Abdul Salam Hanafi (acting, second) Abdul Kabir (acting, third) Leadership Council Cabinet
Judiciary Law of Afghanistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani Deputy chief justices Mohammad Qasim Rasikh (first) Sheikh Abdul Malik (second) Capital punishment
Law enforcement Ministry of Justice Minister: Abdul Hakim Haqqani (acting) Ministry of Interior Affairs Minister: Sirajuddin Haqqani (acting) Afghan National Police Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice Minister: Mohammad Khalid (acting) Attorney General Shamsulldin Shariati (acting)
Administrative divisions Provinces Governors Districts Subdistricts
Elections Recent elections Presidential: 2014 2019 Parliamentary: 2010 2018 Political parties
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Acting Minister: Amir Khan Muttaqi (trips) Ambassadors Diplomatic missions of / in Afghanistan Nationality law Passport Visa requirements Visa policy Recognition of the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan and the United Nations
Afghanistan portal Other countries
v t e

The districts of Afghanistan, known as wuleswali (Pashto: ولسوالۍ, wuləswāləi; Persian: شهرستان, shahrestān), are secondary-level administrative units, one level below provinces. The Afghan government issued its first district map in 1973.^[1] It recognized 325 districts, counting wuleswalis (districts), alaqadaries (sub-districts), and markaz-e-wulaiyat (provincial center districts).^[2] In the ensuing years, additional districts have been added through splits, and some eliminated through merges. In June 2005, the Afghan government issued a map of 398 districts.^[3] It was widely adopted by many information management systems, though usually with the addition of Sharak-e-Hayratan for 399 districts in total. It remains the de facto standard as of late 2018, despite a string of government announcements of the creation of new districts.^{[citation needed][4]}

The latest announced set includes 421 districts. The country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) came up with a joint, consolidated list of Afghan districts. It has handed this list over to the Independent Election Commission (IEC), which has used it in preparing the elections. The set contains 387 "districts" and 34 "provincial center districts" for 412 districts in total.^[5]

This article does not correspond with any particular district set; it lacks a number of districts currently recognized by the Afghan government, and some others that are popularly, but not officially, recognized.^[why?]