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Afghanistan vs Croatia

On research quality in 2022-now, Croatia ranks #52 in the world and Afghanistan #106, of 189 countries. Afghanistan stands higher in 0 of the 23 fields both publish in, Croatia in 23.

Research profiles alike: 0.74very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Afghanistan

World rank, 2022-now
#106
#135 all time
Works, 2022-now
4.5k
fractional
Top-10% rate
9.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
86%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Transportation, Political Science and International Relations, Chemical Health and Safety.

Croatia

World rank, 2022-now
#52
#59 all time
Works, 2022-now
38k
fractional
Top-10% rate
6.5%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
61%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Industrial relations, Library and Information Sciences, Space and Planetary Science.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Afghanistan leads on 5 of 9 measures: citation excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, open access, international co-authorship and growth. Croatia leads on 3 of 9 measures: research quality, output and citations per work. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.

Afghanistan 51 level3 Croatia
  1. #106Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#52
  2. 0.80×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.76×
  3. 4.5kOutputfractional works, 2022-now38k
  4. 9.0%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited6.5%
  5. 4.7Citations per workall time, per fractional work8.2
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 86%Open accessof its works free to read, all time61%
  8. 34%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time16%
  9. +155%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+2%

A rank is drawn as its standing: the longer the bar, the nearer the top. Anything else is drawn against the larger of the two, and two values a hair apart are called level. Quality, citation excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Afghanistan stands higher in 0 of 23 fields, Croatia in 23. Croatia leads most in Medicine (#54 against #115). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Afghanistan 023 Croatia
  1. #95Agricultural and Biological Sciences#54
  2. -Arts and Humanities#51
  3. -Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#51
  4. -Business, Management and Accounting#47
  5. -Chemistry#47
  6. #94Computer Science#61
  7. -Decision Sciences#49
  8. -Dentistry#38
  9. -Earth and Planetary Sciences#48
  10. -Economics, Econometrics and Finance#48
  11. -Energy#45
  12. #99Engineering#56
  13. -Environmental Science#62
  14. -Health Professions#65
  15. -Immunology and Microbiology#43
  16. -Materials Science#49
  17. -Mathematics#53
  18. #115Medicine#54
  19. -Neuroscience#53
  20. -Nursing#43
  21. -Physics and Astronomy#44
  22. -Psychology#52
  23. #89Social Sciences#69

Standing is the percentile of world rank within each field, 2022-now; the printed number is the rank itself. A dash means the field is too small there to rank. How sides are compared.

The numbers behind each field

Click a heading to sort. The side that does better in a pair of columns is shaded: a lower rank, a higher rate, more works.

Field Afghanistan rankCroatia rank Afghanistan top 10%Croatia top 10% Afghanistan worksCroatia works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #95 #54 8.9% 9.1% 317 1.8k
Arts and Humanities - #51 - 4.9% - 2.4k
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology - #51 - 7.2% - 1.5k
Business, Management and Accounting - #47 - 8.5% - 1.3k
Chemistry - #47 - 6.3% - 490
Computer Science #94 #61 13.5% 7.8% 260 2.2k
Decision Sciences - #49 - 8.2% - 374
Dentistry - #38 - 12.7% - 294
Earth and Planetary Sciences - #48 - 5.8% - 646
Economics, Econometrics and Finance - #48 - 5.5% - 2.4k
Energy - #45 - 8.1% - 229
Engineering #99 #56 9.0% 6.2% 416 4.3k
Environmental Science - #62 - 5.9% - 2.2k
Health Professions - #65 - 5.9% - 882
Immunology and Microbiology - #43 - 7.9% - 314
Materials Science - #49 - 5.4% - 691
Mathematics - #53 - 5.2% - 443
Medicine #115 #54 6.5% 7.2% 690 7.3k
Neuroscience - #53 - 5.7% - 473
Nursing - #43 - 6.6% - 217
Physics and Astronomy - #44 - 7.0% - 518
Psychology - #52 - 5.5% - 1.5k
Social Sciences #89 #69 10.4% 5.5% 1.3k 5.8k

What is each known for?

The keywords that describe each side's research, by fractional works in 2022-now and weighted toward what it does more of than the world.

Afghanistan

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Security309▲ 8.7×24 topics
  2. Epidemiology296▲ 1.39×126 topics
  3. Conflict293▲ 34×9 topics
  4. Central Asia260▲ 69×4 topics
  5. Nation-Building252▲ 89×3 topics
  6. Reconstruction252▲ 28×6 topics
  7. State-Building251▲ 133×2 topics
  8. Afghanistan249▲ 196×1 topic
  9. Pakistan249▲ 196×1 topic
  10. Globalization244▲ 2.3×91 topics
  11. Ethnicity210▲ 11×14 topics
  12. Culture207▲ 7.4×16 topics
  13. History204▲ 5.5×20 topics
  14. Climate Change202▲ 1.39×97 topics
  15. Literature201▲ 6.9×23 topics
  16. Philosophy198▲ 8.4×13 topics
  17. Islam191▲ 17×5 topics
  18. Social Influence190▲ 17×3 topics
  19. Science189▲ 14×3 topics
  20. Malay Language188▲ 25×1 topic
  21. Sharia Law188▲ 25×1 topic
  22. Sustainable Development178▲ 2.1×76 topics
  23. Economic Security164▲ 14×7 topics
  24. Legal Regulation162▲ 14×7 topics
  25. Strategic Planning158▲ 20×3 topics
  26. Design158▲ 18×4 topics
  27. Modernization157▲ 16×4 topics
  28. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles157▲ 16×4 topics
  29. International Trade Law156▲ 22×2 topics
  30. Foresight156▲ 22×2 topics
  31. Air Force155▲ 25×1 topic
  32. Warfare155▲ 25×1 topic
  33. Public Oversight155▲ 24×1 topic
  34. Transport Policy155▲ 24×1 topic
  35. Human Rights133▲ 2.4×55 topics
  36. Teacher Training107▲ 3.3×16 topics
  37. Islamic Education87▲ 4.9×4 topics
  38. Religious Education68▲ 7.9×3 topics
  39. Madrasa66▲ 18×1 topic
  40. Muslim Students66▲ 18×1 topic

Croatia

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Epidemiology1,625◆ 0.95×139 topics
  2. Sustainable Development1,368▲ 2.0×105 topics
  3. Sustainability1,296▲ 1.23×127 topics
  4. Climate Change1,230◆ 1.05×124 topics
  5. Economic Growth1,129▲ 3.2×35 topics
  6. International Relations1,106▲ 11×28 topics
  7. International Trade1,024▲ 17×12 topics
  8. Nation-Building1,018▲ 45×4 topics
  9. Foreign Policy1,008▲ 62×4 topics
  10. Sovereign Debt Crises1,002▲ 58×2 topics
  11. Negotiation992▲ 65×4 topics
  12. Commercial Diplomacy976▲ 193×1 topic
  13. Economic Diplomacy976▲ 193×1 topic
  14. Religion893▲ 4.5×43 topics
  15. Artificial Intelligence889▲ 1.45×62 topics
  16. Regional Development810▲ 5.5×19 topics
  17. Organizational Culture800▲ 4.8×16 topics
  18. Financial Performance799▲ 3.3×16 topics
  19. Ethics774▲ 3.6×58 topics
  20. Innovation Management742▲ 11×9 topics
  21. Small and Medium Enterprises722▲ 9.5×10 topics
  22. Agricultural Sustainability716▲ 15×6 topics
  23. Rural Tourism696▲ 52×3 topics
  24. Leadership Emergence693▲ 117×1 topic
  25. Identity680▲ 2.2×75 topics
  26. Resilience629▲ 3.0×17 topics
  27. Climate Change Impact621▲ 6.3×8 topics
  28. Environmental Policy580▲ 6.7×14 topics
  29. Water Quality Monitoring549▲ 16×3 topics
  30. Hydrological Analysis530▲ 34×2 topics
  31. Socio-economic Factors524▲ 11×3 topics
  32. Water Resources Management523▲ 92×2 topics
  33. Global Water Resources517▲ 127×1 topic
  34. Integrated Management517▲ 127×1 topic
  35. Media478▲ 7.4×18 topics
  36. Spirituality468▲ 11×7 topics
  37. Social Change455▲ 8.6×19 topics
  38. Cultural Integration449▲ 4.9×3 topics
  39. Communication Technology422▲ 79×1 topic
  40. Youth Subcultures422▲ 79×1 topic

Size is fractional works in the topics tagged with each word; colour is the word's share of the side's work against its share of the world's. Each word links to the topic it comes from most.

How has their output grown?

Croatia has out-published Afghanistan every year since 1980.

still counting5k10k15kCroatia10k in 2025Afghanistan1,716 in 20251990200020102020

Fractional works per year.

Their share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share, because all of science grows. Each line is a side as a percentage of every work published that year.

still counting0.10%0.20%0.30%Croatia0.18% in 2025Afghanistan0.029% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

The share of each side's works, year by year, that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. The average of all institutions is 10.0% (why not 10%).

still counting5%10%15%Afghanistan8.5% in 2025Croatia7.0% in 2025200020102020

A year with under 1% of the side's peak output is left out: a rate over a handful of papers says nothing. The latest years are still being cited.

Who holds more of the world's best institutions?

A country's average quality and the number of institutions it holds at the very top can disagree, and both are worth knowing. The counts are nested: an institution in the top 50 is also in the top 100.

Afghanistan 05 level0 Croatia
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 0In the top 5000
  4. 0In the top 1,0000
  5. #51Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#51

Institutions ranked on research quality, 2022-now. Elite capacity counts a country's institutions by their worldwide rank, weighted so a place at #1 counts for more than one at #480.

Which publishes more research, Afghanistan or Croatia?

Croatia publishes 8.6× as much research as Afghanistan in 2022-now (38k against 4.5k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Afghanistan or Croatia?

9.0% of Afghanistan's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 6.5% for Croatia.

Is Afghanistan or Croatia growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +155% against 2018-21 for Afghanistan, and +2% for Croatia.

Which has more open access research, Afghanistan or Croatia?

86% of Afghanistan's research is free to read, against 61% of Croatia's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Afghanistan or Croatia?

Afghanistan holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Croatia 0; in the top 1,000 it is 0 against 0.

Which institutions lead in each country?

The highest-ranked institutions on each side on research quality, 2022-now. The percentage is each institution's own top-10% rate: the share of its works that are among the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. Every figure stands alone, so they do not add up to 100%.

Afghanistan

  1. 1Kabul University8.3% top 10% · 1.2k works
  2. 2Kandahar University12.7% top 10% · 207 works
  3. 3Herat University10.0% top 10% · 340 works
  4. 4Kabul Education University7.5% top 10% · 249 works
  5. 5Nangarhar University8.9% top 10% · 332 works
  6. 6Kardan University13.9% top 10% · 145 works

Croatia

  1. 1University of Zagreb6.5% top 10% · 14k works
  2. 2University of Split8.1% top 10% · 3.2k works
  3. 3University of Osijek7.3% top 10% · 2.8k works
  4. 4University of Rijeka7.2% top 10% · 3k works
  5. 5University North9.0% top 10% · 597 works
  6. 6Institut za filozofiju3.7% top 10% · 1.5k works

The number is the rank inside the country. The track on each row is the top-10% rate; the tick is the average of all institutions, 10.0% (how it is set): teal above it, red below. The ranking is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each institution's own topics predict and adds a small reward for size, so the rates do not fall in order.

Who are the top researchers on each side?

The most cited researchers on each side, among those ranked.

Afghanistan

  1. 1 Muhammad Haroon Stanikzai #146,569 worldwide 9.4k citations · 116 works
  2. 2 Ahmad Shah Irshad #157,819 worldwide 648 citations · 45 works
  3. 3 Sajid Ullah #165,934 worldwide 561 citations · 24 works
  4. 4 Sayeed Naqibullah Orfan #191,532 worldwide 523 citations · 37 works
  5. 5 Abdul Qawi Noori #209,787 worldwide 484 citations · 30 works

Croatia

  1. 1 D. Mekterović #10,978 worldwide 52k citations · 552 works
  2. 2 Ozren Polašek #21,112 worldwide 75k citations · 684 works
  3. 3 R. Gupta #26,416 worldwide 7.7k citations · 106 works
  4. 4 G. I. Veres #32,507 worldwide 16k citations · 246 works
  5. 5 T. Virdee #36,724 worldwide 11k citations · 145 works