🇦🇫 Afghanistan (افغانستان)
Visiting: Dangerous
Travel to Afghanistan carries serious risks. Same-sex relationships are criminalised and can carry the death penalty, which places it 169th for LGBT rights, so LGBT travellers should weigh this carefully. Conflict is the main concern: it ranks 166th, in the bottom twenty, and worse again, women's safety is extremely poor, placed 175th. Violent crime is moderate, ranking 103rd, though the roads are hazardous, at 159th.
Homicide
Intentional homicides per 100,000 people — lower is better.
Afghanistan: 4.2
Ranked 78th in the world for the highest homicide rate.
Why this rank?
Four killings per 100,000 people a year is below the world average but above the three where the low tier ends, so it sits in the middle.
Is it safe to visit?
Reasonable on paper — below the world average — but the count is the Taliban's own, with nothing independent to check it against.
Road Fatalities
Road-traffic deaths per 100,000 people per year — lower is better.
Afghanistan: 24.1
Ranked 22nd in the world for the deadliest roads.
Why this rank?
Twenty-four deaths per 100,000 people a year is well above the world average of fifteen but short of double it.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe. Half as high again as the world average, on the WHO's estimate — the country's own count is far too low to be complete.
Conflict
Conflict deaths inside the country in the last twelve months, as recorded by the Uppsala conflict database, civilians killed on purpose, and any UN sanctions or court order over a war. The worst of those sets the colour. Lower is better.
Afghanistan: 4.33
Ranked 15th most conflict-affected country in the world.
Why this rank?
UN Security Council sanctions over its conflict put Afghanistan in the dark red. 895 people died in fighting inside the country in the year to July 2026, 19 of them civilians killed on purpose.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe. Pakistani jets have bombed Kabul and Kandahar, Islamic State bombings continue, and the April ceasefire only mostly holds.
Freedom
Six freedoms rated 0–4 by Freedom House — protest, speech, press, religion, movement and due process. The weakest rating sets the colour, and the total places the country inside it — higher is better.
Afghanistan: 2.10
Ranked 21st least free country in the world.
Why this rank?
In Afghanistan due process is rated 0, meaning absent, so the courts offer no protection if anything goes wrong. Total 2 of 24.
Is it safe to visit?
The Taliban rule by decree with no constitution, all political and civic rights suspended and any criticism prohibited. Courts offer no protection, journalists face violence, and women face the severest curbs of all.
LGBT Rights
LGBT equality in law and daily life — higher is better.
Afghanistan: Death
Ranked 12th least equal in the world for LGBT people.
Why this rank?
Under Taliban rule same-sex acts can mean death. Sharia is applied directly and no written code protects anyone. Red by law.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe. Taliban fighters hunt people through phones and informants. Those who cannot flee live in absolute secrecy.
Women's Safety
Women's safety — feeling safe out at night, political violence against women, a fair hearing in court, and how normal violence at home is, with the night figure setting a floor on the colour — higher is better.
Afghanistan: 3.00
Ranked 6th least safe country in the world for women.
Why this rank?
The lowest score anywhere. A quarter of women feel safe out alone at night, the courts are rated next to nothing for women, and partner violence in the past year is 35 percent.
Is it safe to visit?
For a woman travelling alone, Afghanistan is high risk.