Ethiopia

Ethiopia: population and cities

Population

Population

According to Countryaah website, Ethiopia has about 115 million residents.

Ethnic composition

Approx. 80 different ethnic groups live in the country. About 28% of them are Oromo and Amharians, 7% are related Tigrians (traditional highland farmers). Both peoples are grouped under the Amharic term "Habesha".

Other ethnic groups in Ethiopia are the Somali, Afar, Gurage, Benshangui, Gambella, Harrar and 45 Sudan peoples (including Nilots). There is also a minority of Italians.

Religious affiliation

About 44% belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, 34% are Muslims and 19% are Protestants. The rest are followers of traditional African religions.

There are also minorities of Catholics, Hindus and Sikhs. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is particularly historically significant; the country is considered the second oldest Christian state in the world after Armenia.

National language

The official language of the country is Amharic. There are also about 80 other languages: about 28 omotic, about 25 cushitic and 9 semitic.

Capital and other larger cities

The capital of Ethiopia is Addis Ababa, with a population of around 3.6 million.

On Sunday, March 10th, a Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed about 50 km southeast of Addis Ababa with 149 passengers and eight crew members. Among the passengers on the flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi were five Germans and three Austrians. There had been no survivors.

The cause was most likely a software bug in the autopilot. As a result, a flight ban for this type of aircraft was issued in almost all countries Ethiopian Airlines is per se a reliable airline. It maintains one of the largest route networks in Africa and brings passengers from other continents to other African countries via the Addis Ababa hub. It also offers worldwide connections, including to Frankfurt am Main, Munich, London, New York, Bangkok and Dubai.

Other larger cities are:

- Dire Dawa with around 250,000 residents

- Nazret with around 210,000 residents

- Bahir Dar with around 170,000 residents

- Gondar with around 150,000 residents and

- Mekele with around 150,000 residents.

Ethiopia: geography, general map

Defined by DigoPaul, Ethiopia covers a total area of 1,133,380 km². Thereof:

• Forest

  Around 25% of the country is forested.

• Meadow and pasture land

  Around 40% of the land is used as meadow or pasture land.

• Fields and fields

  Around 13% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing coffee, vegetables or fruit.

But about 80% of the people are employed in some way in agriculture. In the past few years, more and more land has been bought up or leased on a long-term basis by the Chinese, Indians and Saudis all over Africa. The areas so far used by non-Africans in this way are estimated at 20 to 50 million hectares. In Ethiopia, Indians, Saudis and especially the Chinese are active, who have taken on a substantial financial share in the construction of the new infrastructure, for example with railway lines or federal highways and, for example, in Addis Ababa with the light rail! Ethiopia has no access to the sea and shares a border with the following six states.

- Djibouti with a length of 349 km,

- Eritrea with a length of 912 km,

- Kenya with a length of 861 km,

- Somalia with a length of 1,600 km

- South Sudan with a length of 1,299 km

- Sudan with a length of 1,606 km.

Longitude and latitude

Ethiopia extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Time

For Ethiopia, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time (without summer time) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET:

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

The highest point of the sun in Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa lies at a northern latitude of around φ = 09 °.

If the declination δ of the sun has the value 09 ° North and the sun's image point is therefore exactly above the city, the sun is perpendicular to the city. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 35 days after March 21st and 35 days before September 21st.

Attention

If the image point of the sun and thus the declination δ is north of the latitude of Addis Ababa, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes, but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where, like us, it sets. For more information, see position of the sun.

mountains

Ras Dejen

The highest mountain in the country is Ras Dejen - also known as Ras Daschän - in the highlands of Abyssinia. The height of the mountain is officially (still) given as 4,533 m, with more recent measurements showing a height of 4,550 m.

Other high mountains are:

- the Batu Mendebo (4,321 m) in the western Somali highlands

- the Guma Terara (4,231 m) and

- the Guge (4,203 m) in the highlands of Abyssinia

Rivers

The longest river in the country is the Blue Nile with a length of around 1,600 km. (In the country, however, only a relatively small part of the river runs.)

Other rivers in Ethiopia are:

- Atbara with a length of around 1,266 km

- Akobo

- Awash

- Genale

- Omo

- Tekeze

- Shebeli

Lakes

The country includes numerous smaller and larger lakes.

Tana

Lake With an area of around 3,000 km², Lake Tana is the largest lake located entirely in Ethiopia

Lake Turkana Lake

Turkana - formerly also known as Lake Rudolf - covers an area of around 6,405 km², but only covers an area of less than 50 km² on the territory of Ethiopia.

Other larger lakes are:

- the Abaya lake

- the Ziway lake

- the Fincha lake

- the Abhe lake

- the Bahir lake (formerly Stefanie lake) is a salt lake that at times almost completely dries up, but when there is enough rain it is shallow Represents inland waters with an area of up to 2,000 km².