The demographic analysis of Ethiopia is not complete. Thus far, we can conclude that Ethiopia is a very young, highly populous country whose population is rapidly increasing. Although some implications can be drawn from that data alone, it is also important to understand the quality of life of Ethiopians. This can be done though demographic information as well. In the following post, we will attempt to provide a glimpse of the quality of Ethiopian life through demographic information.
Ethiopia's death rate is 12 per 1,000 people a year. This death rate is similar to the rest of Africa's, which is 13 per 1,000 people. The death rate globally is 8, and 10 for more developed countries. Ethiopia's death rate is high compared to that of the rest of the world, but is somewhat similar to that more developed countries. However, MDC's death rate can be explained by how old their population is; 16 percent of the MDC's population is age 65 and older. If there are more old people in a population, then there will be more deaths. However, Ethiopia's percentage of people ages 65 and older is only 3 percent, which is equal to the rest of Africa.
This very low percentage of elderly people in their population makes sense when one considers Ethiopia's average life expectancy. For both sexes, the average life expectancy in Ethiopia is 55. Women live on average to be 57 years old, and men live to be 54. These numbers are exactly the same for Africa as a whole. However, Ethiopia and the rest of Africa aren't doing so well in terms of life expectancy when compared to the rest of the globe. On average, people live to be 69 years old globally, with men living to age 67 and women to age 71. The Ethiopian (and African) life expectancy is 12 years shorter than the global average. More developed countries live even longer, with people living to an average age of 77 (74 for men and 81 for women). Simply by being born in Ethiopia, one lives on average 22 fewer years than people in more developed countries. Therefore, even though more developed countries' death rate is slightly elevated and even comparable to that of Ethiopia, people in more developed countries are dying because they are old. Ethiopians lives are cut short by something else.
Perhaps it is the lack of urbanization that leads to shorter lives for Ethiopians. Only 16 percent of Ethiopians live in urban areas. For the first time in our extended demographic analysis, we see differences between Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. 38 percent of Africans live in urban areas. Compared to the rest of Africa, Ethiopia is falling behind in terms of urbanization. Globally, 50 percent of the world's population is urban, and 75 percent of more developed countries are urban. Therefore, compared to the rest of the world, Ethiopia markedly lags behind in terms of urbanization.
Maybe the reason for shorter lives for Ethiopians is HIV/AIDS. 1.6 percent of men and 2.4 percent of women have HIV or AIDS. For the second time, we see Ethiopia's demographic information differ from the rest of Africa; 3.2 percent of men and 4.8 percent of women have HIV or AIDS for all of Africa. Although these numbers are low compared to global rates (.8 for men, .9 for women) and especially compared to more developed countries (.7 for men, .3 for women), the rates of people infected with HIV or AIDS could be much worse. For example, in Zimbabwe, 12.2 percent of men and 18.7 percent of women have HIV or AIDS. Therefore, HIV/AIDS contributes to the low life expectancy of Ethiopians, but does not nearly come close to explaining why Ethiopians don't live very long.
Perhaps we get closer to the answer when we consider rates of childhood malnutrition. Ethiopia has the tenth highest rates of malnutrition of all countries, with 34.6 percent of children underweight according to the definition prescribed by the World Health Organization. To compare to a more developed country, the United State's percentage of childhood malnutrition is 1.3 percent. There are only four African nations to rank higher than Ethiopia for percentage of malnourished children: Niger, Burundi, Burkina Faso, and Madagascar. Perhaps when we discover that childhood malnutrition is extraordinarily prevalent in Ethiopia, we begin to understand why Ethiopian quality of life is not optimal.
We can learn from this demographic analysis that Ethiopians don't live very long compared to the rest of the globe. Their life expectancy and percentage of elderly people is reflective of the rest Africa. However, the reasons for the low life expectancy of Ethiopians likely differs from that of the rest of Africa. In the next few posts, we will attempt to explore those reasons and uncover some of the major problems in Ethiopia.
Source for all information: Population Reference Bureau World Data Sheet, except where noted. The statistics about underweight children comes from the World Health Organization, and are available here: http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/topic.jsp?i=48#notes
