Afghanistan vs Nepal
On research quality in 2022-now, Afghanistan ranks #106 in the world and Nepal #109, of 189 countries. Afghanistan stands higher in 3 of the 21 fields both publish in, Nepal in 18.
Research profiles alike: 0.84very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured
Compare other countries
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.
Nepal
- World rank, 2022-now
- #109
- #89 all time
- Works, 2022-now
- 33k
- fractional
- Top-10% rate
- 4.8%
- share of its work among the world's most cited
- Open access
- 76%
- of its works free to read
Strongest relative focus: Drug Discovery, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, General Dentistry.
Who leads, measure by measure?
Afghanistan leads on 6 of 9 measures: research quality, excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, open access, international co-authorship and growth. Nepal leads on 2 of 9 measures: output and citations per work. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.
- #106Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#109
- 0.80×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.42×
- 4.5kOutputfractional works, 2022-now33k
- 9.0%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited4.8%
- 4.7Citations per workall time, per fractional work7.2
- 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
- 86%Open accessof its works free to read, all time76%
- 34%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time25%
- +155%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+54%
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, excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.
Who leads in each field?
Afghanistan stands higher in 3 of 21 fields, Nepal in 18. Nepal leads most in Engineering (#91 against #99); Afghanistan leads most in Social Sciences (#89 against #124). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.
- #95Agricultural and Biological Sciences#89
- -Arts and Humanities#76
- -Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#82
- -Business, Management and Accounting#103
- -Chemistry#54
- #94Computer Science#113
- -Decision Sciences#62
- -Dentistry#56
- -Earth and Planetary Sciences#64
- -Economics, Econometrics and Finance#93
- #99Engineering#91
- -Environmental Science#84
- -Health Professions#84
- -Immunology and Microbiology#65
- -Materials Science#66
- -Mathematics#76
- #115Medicine#127
- -Neuroscience#68
- -Nursing#62
- -Psychology#88
- #89Social Sciences#124
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 rank | Nepal rank | Afghanistan top 10% | Nepal top 10% | Afghanistan works | Nepal works |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | #95 | #89 | 8.9% | 5.5% | 317 | 2.8k |
| Arts and Humanities | - | #76 | - | 6.8% | - | 990 |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | - | #82 | - | 4.9% | - | 1k |
| Business, Management and Accounting | - | #103 | - | 4.8% | - | 1.4k |
| Chemistry | - | #54 | - | 9.4% | - | 245 |
| Computer Science | #94 | #113 | 13.5% | 5.0% | 260 | 2k |
| Decision Sciences | - | #62 | - | 4.9% | - | 458 |
| Dentistry | - | #56 | - | 2.3% | - | 386 |
| Earth and Planetary Sciences | - | #64 | - | 6.0% | - | 253 |
| Economics, Econometrics and Finance | - | #93 | - | 3.9% | - | 1.2k |
| Engineering | #99 | #91 | 9.0% | 4.5% | 416 | 3.1k |
| Environmental Science | - | #84 | - | 5.1% | - | 1.9k |
| Health Professions | - | #84 | - | 6.7% | - | 1.2k |
| Immunology and Microbiology | - | #65 | - | 5.6% | - | 312 |
| Materials Science | - | #66 | - | 6.2% | - | 494 |
| Mathematics | - | #76 | - | 7.7% | - | 292 |
| Medicine | #115 | #127 | 6.5% | 3.4% | 690 | 8.6k |
| Neuroscience | - | #68 | - | 5.0% | - | 233 |
| Nursing | - | #62 | - | 5.0% | - | 276 |
| Psychology | - | #88 | - | 5.3% | - | 1k |
| Social Sciences | #89 | #124 | 10.4% | 6.1% | 1.3k | 4k |
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
- Muslim Students
- Religious Education
- Teacher Training
- Transport Policy
- Warfare
- Foresight
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- Design
- Legal Regulation
- Sustainable Development
- Malay Language
- Social Influence
- Philosophy
- Climate Change
- Culture
- Globalization
- Afghanistan
- Reconstruction
- Central Asia
- Epidemiology
- Security
- Conflict
- Nation-Building
- State-Building
- Pakistan
- Ethnicity
- History
- Literature
- Islam
- Science
- Sharia Law
- Economic Security
- Strategic Planning
- Modernization
- International Trade Law
- Air Force
- Public Oversight
- Human Rights
- Islamic Education
- Madrasa
All 40 words, with their numbers
- Security309▲ 8.7×24 topics
- Epidemiology296▲ 1.39×126 topics
- Conflict293▲ 34×9 topics
- Central Asia260▲ 69×4 topics
- Nation-Building252▲ 89×3 topics
- Reconstruction252▲ 28×6 topics
- State-Building251▲ 133×2 topics
- Afghanistan249▲ 196×1 topic
- Pakistan249▲ 196×1 topic
- Globalization244▲ 2.3×91 topics
- Ethnicity210▲ 11×14 topics
- Culture207▲ 7.4×16 topics
- History204▲ 5.5×20 topics
- Climate Change202▲ 1.39×97 topics
- Literature201▲ 6.9×23 topics
- Philosophy198▲ 8.4×13 topics
- Islam191▲ 17×5 topics
- Social Influence190▲ 17×3 topics
- Science189▲ 14×3 topics
- Malay Language188▲ 25×1 topic
- Sharia Law188▲ 25×1 topic
- Sustainable Development178▲ 2.1×76 topics
- Economic Security164▲ 14×7 topics
- Legal Regulation162▲ 14×7 topics
- Strategic Planning158▲ 20×3 topics
- Design158▲ 18×4 topics
- Modernization157▲ 16×4 topics
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles157▲ 16×4 topics
- International Trade Law156▲ 22×2 topics
- Foresight156▲ 22×2 topics
- Air Force155▲ 25×1 topic
- Warfare155▲ 25×1 topic
- Public Oversight155▲ 24×1 topic
- Transport Policy155▲ 24×1 topic
- Human Rights133▲ 2.4×55 topics
- Teacher Training107▲ 3.3×16 topics
- Islamic Education87▲ 4.9×4 topics
- Religious Education68▲ 7.9×3 topics
- Madrasa66▲ 18×1 topic
- Muslim Students66▲ 18×1 topic
Nepal
- Health Systems
- Health Inequalities
- Youth Employment
- Identity Politics
- Maternal Mortality
- IoT
- Poverty
- Food Security
- Depression
- Conflict
- Remote Sensing
- Pandemic
- Diagnosis
- Sustainable Development
- Environmental Impact
- Treatment
- COVID-19
- Sustainability
- Deep Learning
- Climate Change
- Epidemiology
- Machine Learning
- Globalization
- Education
- Public Health
- Economic Growth
- Quality of Life
- Risk Factors
- Mental Health
- Renewable Energy
- Healthcare
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Management
- Risk Management
- Social Inequality
- Surgical Management
- Democratization
- Maoist Insurgency
- Community Health Workers
- Child Mortality
All 40 words, with their numbers
- Epidemiology2,371▲ 1.61×135 topics
- Climate Change1,795▲ 1.78×118 topics
- Machine Learning1,547▲ 1.25×96 topics
- Deep Learning1,443◆ 1.13×85 topics
- Globalization1,274▲ 1.75×120 topics
- Sustainability1,243▲ 1.37×107 topics
- Education906▲ 1.42×107 topics
- COVID-19880▲ 1.83×31 topics
- Public Health754▲ 1.40×62 topics
- Treatment745▲ 1.65×52 topics
- Economic Growth711▲ 2.4×32 topics
- Environmental Impact703◆ 1.11×69 topics
- Quality of Life697▲ 1.30×57 topics
- Sustainable Development675▲ 1.16×94 topics
- Risk Factors662▲ 1.62×37 topics
- Diagnosis650▲ 1.88×41 topics
- Mental Health633▲ 1.19×45 topics
- Pandemic632▲ 1.72×13 topics
- Renewable Energy608◆ 1.13×55 topics
- Remote Sensing576▲ 1.27×42 topics
- Healthcare552▲ 1.31×38 topics
- Conflict544▲ 9.1×10 topics
- Cardiovascular Disease520▲ 1.23×39 topics
- Depression498▲ 1.53×25 topics
- Management494▲ 1.67×38 topics
- Food Security480▲ 2.4×22 topics
- Risk Management469▲ 2.7×17 topics
- Poverty416▲ 12×5 topics
- Social Inequality376▲ 3.8×11 topics
- IoT364▲ 2.6×19 topics
- Surgical Management362▲ 2.4×20 topics
- Maternal Mortality338▲ 4.1×5 topics
- Democratization326▲ 13×4 topics
- Identity Politics315▲ 18×3 topics
- Maoist Insurgency315▲ 161×1 topic
- Youth Employment315▲ 42×1 topic
- Community Health Workers245▲ 7.5×2 topics
- Health Inequalities239▲ 5.3×5 topics
- Child Mortality216▲ 8.1×1 topic
- Health Systems216▲ 8.1×1 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?
Nepal has out-published Afghanistan every year since 1980.
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.
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%).
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.
- 0In the world top 500
- 0In the top 1000
- 0In the top 5000
- 0In the top 1,0000
- #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 Nepal?
Nepal publishes 7.3× as much research as Afghanistan in 2022-now (33k against 4.5k fractional works).
Whose research has more impact, Afghanistan or Nepal?
9.0% of Afghanistan's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 4.8% for Nepal.
Is Afghanistan or Nepal growing faster?
Output in 2022-25 was +155% against 2018-21 for Afghanistan, and +54% for Nepal.
Which has more open access research, Afghanistan or Nepal?
86% of Afghanistan's research is free to read, against 76% of Nepal's.
Which has more world-class institutions, Afghanistan or Nepal?
Afghanistan holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Nepal 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
- 1Kabul University8.3% top 10% · 1.2k works
- 2Kandahar University12.7% top 10% · 207 works
- 3Herat University10.0% top 10% · 340 works
- 4Kabul Education University7.5% top 10% · 249 works
- 5Nangarhar University8.9% top 10% · 332 works
- 6Kardan University13.9% top 10% · 145 works
Nepal
- 1Tribhuvan University4.7% top 10% · 16k works
- 2College of Medical Sciences4.8% top 10% · 558 works
- 3Nepal Development Research Institute8.8% top 10% · 409 works
- 4Pokhara University5.3% top 10% · 1.6k works
- 5Purbanchal University6.5% top 10% · 334 works
- 6Agriculture and Forestry University5.3% top 10% · 1.4k 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 Muhammad Haroon Stanikzai #146,569 worldwide 9.4k citations · 116 works
- 2 Ahmad Shah Irshad #157,819 worldwide 648 citations · 45 works
- 3 Sajid Ullah #165,934 worldwide 561 citations · 24 works
- 4 Sayeed Naqibullah Orfan #191,532 worldwide 523 citations · 37 works
- 5 Abdul Qawi Noori #209,787 worldwide 484 citations · 30 works
Nepal
- 1 Meghnath Dhimal #20,212 worldwide 83k citations · 338 works
- 2 Arun Bhakta Shrestha #60,021 worldwide 17k citations · 187 works
- 3 Mandira Lamichhane Dhimal #65,202 worldwide 21k citations · 63 works
- 4 Krishna Kumar Aryal #72,386 worldwide 11k citations · 105 works
- 5 Santosh Nepal #88,994 worldwide 6.7k citations · 130 works