Country name: | Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia |
Government type: | Federal parliamentary republic |
Capital: | Addis Ababa |
Administrative divisions: | 9 ethnically based regional states |
Independence: | Oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world - at least 2,000 years |
Legal system: | Civil law system |
Total area: | Land 1,096,570 sq km, water 7,730 sq km, coastline 0 km, land boundaries 5,925 km |
Natural resources: | Small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, natural gas, hydropower |
Land use: | Agricultural land 36.3%, forest 12.2%, other 51.5% (2011 est.) |
Population: | 108,386,391 (July 2018 est.) |
Ethnic groups: | Oromo 34.4%, Amhara 27%, Somali (Somalie) 6.2%, Tigray (Tigrinya) 6.1%, Sidama 4%, |
Gurage 2.5%, Welaita 2.3%, Hadiya 1.7%, Afar 1.7%, Gamo 1.5%, other 12.6% (2007 est.) | |
Languages: | Oromo 33.8%, Amharic (official national language) 29.3%, Somali 6.2%, other 30.7%, (2007 est.) |
Religions: | Ethiopian Orthodox 43.5%, Muslim 33.9%, Protestant 18.5%, traditional 2.7%, other 1.4% (2007 est.) |
Age structure: | Median age 18 years, life expectancy 63 years, total fertility rate 4.91 children born/woman (2018 est.) |
Urbanization: | Urban population: 21.2% of total population (2019) |
Literacy: |
Total population: 49.1%, male: 57.2%, female: 41.1% (2015 est.)
|
Unemployment: | Unemployment youth ages (15-24): 25.2% |
Ethiopia - the second most populous country in Africa - is a one-party state with a planned economy. For more than a decade before 2016, GDP grew at a rate between 8% and 11% annually – one of the fastest growing states among the 188 IMF member countries. This growth was driven by government investment in infrastructure, as well as sustained progress in the agricultural and service sectors. More than 70% of Ethiopia’s population is still employed in the agricultural sector, but services have surpassed agriculture as the principal source of GDP.
Ethiopia has the lowest level of income-inequality in Africa and one of the lowest in the world, with a Gini coefficient comparable to that of the Scandinavian countries. Yet despite progress toward eliminating extreme poverty, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world, due both to rapid population growth and a low starting base. Changes in rainfall associated with world-wide weather patterns resulted in the worst drought in 30 years in 2015-16, creating food insecurity for millions of Ethiopians.
The state is heavily engaged in the economy. Ongoing infrastructure projects include power production and distribution, roads, rails, airports and industrial parks. Key sectors are state-owned, including telecommunications, banking and insurance, and power distribution. Under Ethiopia's constitution, the state owns all land and provides long-term leases to tenants. Title rights in urban areas, particularly Addis Ababa, are poorly regulated, and subject to corruption.
Ethiopia’s foreign exchange earnings are led by the services sector - primarily the state-run Ethiopian Airlines - followed by exports of several commodities. While coffee remains the largest foreign exchange earner, Ethiopia is diversifying exports, and commodities such as gold, sesame, khat, livestock and horticulture products are becoming increasingly important. Manufacturing represented less than 8% of total exports in 2016, but manufacturing exports should increase in future years due to a growing international presence.
To support industrialization in sectors where Ethiopia has a comparative advantage, such as textiles and garments, leather goods, and processed agricultural products, Ethiopia plans to increase installed power generation capacity by 8,320 MW, up from a capacity of 2,000 MW, by building three more major dams and expanding to other sources of renewable energy. In 2017, the government devalued the birr by 15% to increase exports and alleviate a chronic foreign currency shortage in the country.