Size: Slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Population: About 70 to 80 million, with 85% of the population living in the rural areas. The second most populous African country after Nigeria, Ethiopia's population has grown dramatically in the last several decades, from 33.5 million in 1983 to 75.1 million in 2006, and is expected to reach about 93.8 million by 2015.

Languages Spoken: Amharic is the official language in Ethiopia, yet 89 other languages are spoken in the country including Oromifa, Tigrinya and Somali. English is the major foreign language taught in schools.

Ethnic Groups: Ethiopia is one of the most ethnically divrse nations in the world, with over 50 ethnic groups in the Omo River region alone. Prominent ethnic groups include Oromo (32.1%), Amhara (30.1%), Tigray (6.2%), Somali (5.9%), Gurajie (4.3%), Sidama (3.5%), and Welaita (2.4%).

Type of Government: Federal Republic. Ethiopia is one of the few African countries to maintain freedom from colonial rule with the exception of the Fascist Italian occupation during World War II. Ethiopia's monarchy ruled by Emperor Haile Selassie since 1930 was toppled by a military junta in 1974 by the socialist Derg. The Derg was undermined by coups, uprisings and drought until a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took over in 1991. The country soon adopted a constitution in 1994 and its first multiparty elections in 1995. However, political turmoil has since continued. A border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia in the late 1990s remains unresolved as the two neighboring countries continue to dispute territory. In 2005, a disputed election that re-elected the current Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, resulted in 187 deaths by the hands of government forces, countless imprisonments and a sweep of silent political fear throughout the country.

Religion: The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is one of the few pre-colonial Christian churches and the largest Oriental Orthodox Church with a membership of about 40 million people, mostly in Ethiopia. Many Ethiopians believe that the Ark of the Covenant exists and still rests in Aksum, Ethiopia. Ethiopia is about half Orthodox Christian, 10.2% Protestant, 32.8 % Muslim and 4.6 % traditional religions. Historically, Muslims and Christians have lived in relative peace with one another.

Gender and Health Issues: Overall literacy in Ethiopia is low, at 42.7%, with a 7.6% gap between men and women. HIV/AIDS is a major health issue affecting 2.2% of the population, but which decreased from 4.4% since 2003. The AIDS epidemic in Ethiopia has resulted in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates. Other major infectious diseases include food or waterborne diseases such as bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever and vector-borne diseases such as malaria in some locations. Waterborne diseases are the most prominent. 75% of the population does not have sustainable access to an improved water source; 250,000 children die because of poor sanitation every year. Life expectancy is low at only 42.7 years - 34.9 years younger the life expectancy in the U.S.
Only 6.3% of women of childbearing age use a modern form of contraception - far below many western country's average usage rate of 70 - 80%. Abortion is illegal but available only under restricted circumstances, i.e. only if needed to save the woman's life or to preserve physical or mental health, but not in all cases of rape or incest.

Human Trafficking Situation: Human trafficking has particularly affected children who are sold for as little as US $1.20 to work as domestic workers or prostitutes to, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Up to 20,000 children are sold each year by parents, out of desperation due to poverty, can't afford to raise them, and trafficked by brokers to work across the country.

Environment and Resources: Ethiopia's expansive terrain of plateaus, valleys and desert suffers from frequent drought, which has stifled the agriculture sector and the economy, particularly the coffee industry. The increasingly frequent droughts have resulted in two notable famines, such as occurred in Ethiopia in 1984 where more than 1 million peopled starved to death. Each year, about 10 million people are at risk of starvation in Ethiopia.
Northwest Ethiopia's Lake Tana is home to the source of the world's longest river, the Blue Nile. Ethiopia has experienced on-going Nile river disputes with Egypt, which has monopolized the use of the Nile due to a colonial treaty signed by British administrators that restricted the use of the Nile Rivers to Egypt. Recent water agreements between neighboring countries have resulted in an increase in damning projects throughout the country. Today, water scarcity issues have fueled tensions both between Ethiopia and other countries that share The Nile, as well as among pastoralist tribes in southern Ethiopia who struggle to survive because of drought, which has led to scarce water and pasture for their livestock. Councils have been formed in order to help resolve the violence, but pastoralists still face the serious affects of climate change, which researchers predict could soon force pastoralists to abandon their way of life entirely. Water scarcity issues prevail throughout all other regions of the country, which mostly revolve around lack of infrastructure, available or clean water and the disappearance of lakes in the east.

GDP: $700 (per capita)

International Aid Received: US $2.3 billion from the World Bank

Receives US Counterterrorism Assistance: Yes

Death Penalty: In use for ordinary crimes

Top Five Industries: Agriculture is the top industry in Ethiopia, accounting for almost half of GDP, 60% of exports and 80 % of total employment. In fact, some major crops are thought to have originated in Ethiopia including coffee and grain sorghum. The critical industry of coffee exported $350 million in 2006. However, historically low prices have caused some farmers to supplementing their income by growing chat, an indigenous plant often chewed as a stimulant and exported principally to Djibouti and Somalia. The crop however, is illegal in the United States. Other prominent industries include production of oilseed, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes, cut flowers, hides, cattle, sheep and goats.

Poverty Rate: Over 60 million (81%) live below the poverty line of $2 a day, and 31 million (41%) live on less than half a dollar a day.

McDonald's Restaurants: None

Currency: 1 Birr - about 10 to the dollar

Media: Ethiopia ranks 160th out of 167 on the Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index, dropping 29 places after several journalists and newspaper editors were arrested along with the leaders of the opposition coalition in 2005, and continue to be arrested to this day. In the past 12 years, the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association, which has campaigned against dwindling press freedoms, documented hundreds of arrests of journalists, editors, publishers, owners and distributors. In 2003, the EFJA was banned by the government, and its president, Kifle Mulat has been imprisoned four times. In past few years, the Ethiopian government released several journalists from prison, yet the 2006 World Press Freedom Review reports that the arrests have "almost silenced independent journalism." Although Ethiopia's media has improved since the fall of the Derg, an aura of fear still breathes throughout the media landscape. Online media outlets are gaining popularity, but only 164,000 people in Ethiopia are internet users, and the governmental agency, the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation, has a monopoly on internet service, limiting the population's access to reliable internet.

Posted: February 2008