It is impossible to know how many civilians have died in Afghanistan since this conflict began.
There are no records pre-2007, and the records that have been kept since then might not be accurate.
United Nations and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) have both started to keep databases of civilian fatalities, but their efforts are hampered by lack of resources and insecurity. Therefore, it is probably fair to assume that any figures released are lower than the actual number.
The figures presented here relate to short periods of time compared to the 10 years of conflict suffered by the people of Afghanistan.
Statistics up to 31 January 2011
Due to the difficulty of recording casualties among the civilian population, the above figures should be taken as estimates.
The AIHRC published their figures for the first 7 months of 2010 (January 1 to July 31) and compared these to the same period of 2009.
| Afghan Civilians | |||
| Period | Killed | Injured | Total |
| 2011 | |||
| 01Jan-31Jan | 74 | 116 | 190 |
| 2010 | |||
| 01Jan-31Dec | 2421 | 3270 | 5691 |
| 2009 | |||
| 01Jan-31Dec | 2412 | 3566 | 5978 |
| 2008 | |||
| 01Jan-31Dec | 2118 | unknown | 2118 |
| 2007 | |||
| 01Jan-31Dec | 1523 | unknown | 1523 |
| Totals | 8548 | 6952 | |
The AIHRC published their figures for the first 7 months of 2010 (January 1 to July 31) and compared these to the same period of 2009.
Jan-Jul 2010: 1,325 civilian fatalities (a 5.5% increase on 2009)
Jan-Jul 2009: 1,252 civilian fatalities
The United Nations released a report into civilian deaths for the first 6 months of 2010, recording who was responsible.
From January 1 to June 30, 2010 they recorded a total of 1,271 civilian fatalities.
920 (72%) were caused by Anti-Government elements
223 (18%) were caused by Pro-Government forces
128 (10%) the responsible party was unknown.
