Ethiopia is a nation in East Africa, and is bordered by Somalia in the east, Kenya to the south, Sudan to the west, and Eritrea and Djibouti to the north (CIA). Ethiopia is a landlocked country made up of high plateau terrain with mountains in the center of the country and the Great Rift Valley (CIA).Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent nation, and unlike many African countries, managed to largely stay away from colonial dominance. In 1974, a Marxist military junta (the Derg) overthrew Emporer Haile Selassie, and the Derg was overthrown in 1991 by the EPRDF, or Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, and Ethiopia is now a democratic nation. (CIA).
Ethiopia is home to about 85 million people (PRB), making it the 14th most populaous nation in the world (CIA). These 85 million people speak over seven languages including Amarigna, Oromigna, Tirigna, and Somoligna (CIA). Ethiopians are 43.5 percent Orthodox Christian, 33.9 percent Muslim, 18.6 percent Protestant, and 2.6 traditional religions (CIA).
Although these introductory facts about Ethiopia may be helpful to place Ethiopia into context, these facts are meaningless without understanding a current demographic portrait of Ethiopia and the problems facing Ethiopia's population today. After all, a nation is made up of people, and a useful way to understand people in a different part of the world is through demographic analysis.
Population Reference Bureau. "World Population Data Sheet". 2010.
