are an Iranian ethnic group even into the 1970s, although the constitution of 1923 began the use of 'Afghans' as a demonym for all citizens of the Kingdom, regardless of their ethnic group, to create an Afghan national identity.
The Pashtuns speak the Pashto language, which belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Iranian language family. The dialect of Wanetsi is spoken mainly among Pashtuns of the Tareen tribe in Pakistan, and Ormuri among non-Pashtun Ormur people and Wazir Pashtuns. Additionally, Dari serves as the second language of Pashtuns in Afghanistan, while those in Pakistan speak Urdu and English. In India, the majority of those of Pashtun descent have lost the ability to speak Pashto and instead speak Hindi and other regional languages, while those in Iran primarily speak Southern Pashto, and Persian as a second language.
Pashtuns form the world's largest tribal society, comprising from 60–70 million people, and between 350–400 tribes, plus more sub-tribes. There are a variety of origin theories for the peoples. In 2021, Shahid Javed Burki estimated the total Pashtun population to be between 60 and 70 million, with 15 million in Afghanistan.
They are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second-largest ethnic group in Pakistan,
Geographic distribution
Afghanistan and Pakistan
Pashtuns are spread over a wide geographic area, south of the Amu river and west of the Indus River. They can be found all over Afghanistan and Pakistan. Big cities with a Pashtun majority include Jalalabad, Kandahar, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Khost, Kohat, Lashkar Gah, Mardan, Ghazni, Mingora, Peshawar, Quetta, among others. Pashtuns also live in Abbottabad, Farah, Herat, Islamabad, Kabul, Karachi, Kunduz, Lahore, Mazar-i-Sharif, Mianwali, and Attock.
The city of Karachi, the financial capital of Pakistan, is home to the world's largest urban community of Pashtuns, larger than those of Kabul and Peshawar. Likewise, Islamabad, the country's political capital, also serves as the major urban center of Pashtuns. More than 20% of the city's population belongs to the Pashto-speaking community.
India
Pashtuns in India often identify as Pathans (the Hindustani word for Pashtun), and are referred to this way by other ethnic groups of the subcontinent. Some Indians claim descent from Pashtun soldiers who settled in India by marrying local women during the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent.
Historically, Pashtuns settled in various cities of India before and during the British Raj in colonial India. These include Bombay (now called Mumbai), Farrukhabad, Delhi, Calcutta, Saharanpur, Rohilkhand, Jaipur, and Bangalore.
In India, significant Pashtun diaspora communities exist. While speakers of Pashto in the country number only 21,677 as of 2011, estimates of the ethnic or ancestral Pashtun population in India range from 3,200,000 to 11,482,000, to as high as double their population in Afghanistan (approximately 30 million).