Addis Ababa University

College of Natural and Computational Science

Freshman Course

Course Title:
Geography of Ethiopia and the Horn

by:

Belete Ejigu (PhD)

Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Development

February 2021
1
 Chapter Seven:

Population of Ethiopia and the Horn

 Objectives

• After the completion of this chapter, you will be

able to:
- Discuss the importance and sources of population data
- Compute basic demographic rates
- Develop an understanding of the population
characteristics and dynamics of Ethiopia and the Horn
- Describe the spatial distribution of the Ethiopian
population and provide justifications for its unevenness
- Explain the process of urbanization in Ethiopia and
look into the opportunities and challenges
 Population Data: Uses and Sources
• Regular and reliable population data are vital for effective
socioeconomic development planning and administration.
• Such data are needed to plan for the provision of infrastructures
such as:
- schools, - hospitals,
- roads, - water and sewerage facilities,
- housing, - establishing voting district boundaries,
- estimating future tax revenue and designing public programs.
• Hence, demographic data are crucial to administrators,
businessmen, researchers, academicians and planners.
• Demography influences:
- production, - distribution, - consumption,
- defense and - administrative services.
 Sources of Population Data
• There are three conventional sources of obtaining population
data namely census, sample survey and vital registration.
A. Census:
• is the total process of collecting, compiling and publishing
demographic, economic and social data pertaining at a specified
time (s) to all persons in a defined territory.
• Its major characteristics include:
1. Universality: inclusion of all persons in a given area during the count,
2. Periodicity: census undertaking at regular time intervals with reference
to a defined point of time usually 10 years and 5 years,
3. Simultaneity: undertaking census in a very limited time duration called
the census day/night,
4. Government sponsorship being an expensive endeavour, and
publication
 Procedures for Collecting Census Data
• There are two procedures for collecting census data:
1. Dejure approach and
2. Defacto approach
1. Dejure approach:
- it involves counting people according to their usual place of
residence (where he/she lives most of the time).
- This system gives a picture of the total permanent population of
an area thereby making it suitable for planning and administrative
purposes.
2. Defacto approach:
- Under this approach each individual is recorded at the place
where he/she was found at the time of the census.
- The defacto enumeration may give enlarged totals.
 Cont’d…
B. Sample Survey:
• is a method in which a defined population/sample/ is selected with the
view that information acquired would represent the entire
population.
• This method is advantageous over census as
- costs can be greatly reduced,
- it is simple to administer and
- taken much faster.
• Sample surveys have the inherent weaknesses related to:
- sampling errors and
- inadequate coverage
 Cont’d…
C. Vital Registration:
• is a system of continuous, permanent, compulsory and legal
recording of the occurrence and the characteristics of vital events
like births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adoptions.
• Vital registration data tend to be more precise than that of census/
sample survey and the system provides time series data.
 Cont’d…
• Despite the enormous usefulness of population information, it
could be noted that population data could suffer from
inaccuracy resulting from:
- poor and inadequately financed methods of collection;
- poorly trained enumerator;
- suspicion and ignorance of censuses and false statements
specially of age and income;
- constant changes in administrations;
- omission of more inaccessible areas; as well as
- wide difference in connotation of terms like language,
ethnicity, and occupation.
 Cont’d…
• The errors are likely to be introduced at the stage of :
- data collection,
- data processing,
- analyses and
- the writing up of the report.
• As such, the errors need to be detected and all the necessary
adjustments made to enhance their usefulness.
 Population Dynamics: Fertility, Mortality and Migration
• The population of any particular region (country) grows/declines
as a result of the combined effect of the three demographic
variables: fertility, mortality and migration.
Table: Number of Population in Ethiopia
Census Time No of Population Growth Rate
1984 42.2 million 2.9 percent
1994 53.5 million
2007 73.8 million
Projected (in 2019) 112 million 2.6%

- Ethiopia is endowed with a large and fast-growing population ranking 2nd in

Africa next to Nigeria and 12th in the world.
- The largest part of the population (80%) is rural based.
- Ethiopia has a youthful population where about 65 percent of the population is
below 24 years of age.
- The population is also unevenly distributed.
 Demographic Measurements
• In Ethiopia, fertility and mortality are the two principal
determinants of population growth while international migration
is insignificant.
• The basic demographic measurements include:
1. Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
- refers to the number of live births per 1000 population.
2. General Fertility Rate (GFR):
- refers to the total number of live births per women of reproductive age
3. Total Fertility Rate (TFR):
- refers to the average number of children that a woman would have
at the end of her reproductive period if the current age specific
fertility rate remains unchanged.
4. Crude Death Rate (CDR):
- refers to the number of deaths per 1000 population in a year
 Cont’d…
5. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR):
- refers to the total number of deaths of infants per 1000 live Birth
6. Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR):
- refers to death of mothers in connection from pregnancy and birth
complications per 100,000 live birth.
7. Life Expectancy at Birth:
- refers to the average number of years that a newly born baby is
expected to live.
- It is used as a summary measure of the mortality experience of the
whole population.
8. Natural Rate of Increase (NRI):
- is the difference between crude birth rate and crude death rate
expressed in percentage.
i.e., NRI= CBR - CDR)
 Levels and Trends in Fertility and Mortality Rates in Ethiopia
• Birth and death rates show significant spatiotemporal variation.
• Urban areas have lower birth and death rates compared to rural
areas implying that living and health conditions are better and,
perhaps, family planning programme is gaining ground.

In 2016, Fertility: In 2016, Mortality Rates:

- In Addis Ababa : 1.8 children per woman,
which is the lowest in the country -IMR at the country level was 54 per1,000
-In Somali : 7.2 children per woman, which live births.
is the highest in the country Regarding Infant Mortality Rate (IMR):
-Recently, fertility is showing a declining -In Addis Ababa : the lowest IMR while
trend i.e, GFR was declined from 7.52 in
1984 to 6.74 in 1994 and currently dropped -In Benishangul is the highest MIR
to 4.6 children,

-Life expectancy at birth in Ethiopia increased from about 36.7 years in the 1960s to 62.6
years in 2016.
-Life expectancy at birth is greater for urban areas than for rural areas.
-Life Expectancy is highest in Addis Ababa while lowest in Benishangul.
 Cont’d…
Table: Comparison of Birth and Death Rates and Life Expectancy of
Ethiopia with Selected Countries.
 Cont’d…
• All demographic rates are high and life expectancies are low for
developing countries.
• Ethiopia's infant mortality rate is higher than Kenya, Eritrea and
Djibouti,
• Ethiopia has the lowest life expectancy as compared to Kenya, Eritrea
and Djibouti.
• Death Rate in the developing countries decreased due to the
improvement of medical service.
• Birth Rate remained high in the developing countries due to:
- Little family planning practices and lack of population education;
- Lower status of women,
- Early marriage, particularly of females;
- Parents consideration of children as assets, though little obliged for their education,
health;
- The relatively high infant and child mortality rates, that trigger couples to
have more births to compensate for the loses and
- Perhaps religious influences.
 Cont’d…
• Some of the consequences of rapid population growth
under conditions of slowly growing economy include:
- low per capita GNP
- increased unemployment and under –employment
- growing social ills such as poverty/destitution, begging, theft,
prostitution
- continuous inflation that erodes purchasing power of the
currency
- shortage of cultivated land and food shortages
- overcrowding of infrastructural and social facilities; housing
problems and increase in urban slums and squatter settlements
- Environmental problems such as deforestation, soil erosion,
loss of biodiversity and pollution.
 Migration in Ethiopia and the Horn
• Migration is a form of geographic mobility involving a permanent or
semi-permanent change of residence between clearly defined
geographic units.
• Now a days, human mobility has accelerated as a result of economic
and technological progress especially in the fields of communication
and transportation.
• Some of the multifaceted implications of migration are:
- Migration yields an increased level of urbanization;
- It enhances rural-urban linkages in creating an integrated
economy
- It influences spatial population distribution
- Migration negatively influences human fertility and mortality patterns
and levels; and affects age and sex composition of the population.
- It is a means of achieving economic efficiency.
- It can also be a cause and consequence of inequality and unequal
development
 Cont’d…
- It is regarded as a cause and consequence of diversity; and a mechanism
of spreading cultures
- It is a necessary condition for the creation and strengthening of a sense of
nationhood and national unity
- It creates a creative and open society to new ideas than a homogenous
group of people.
 A. Internal Migration in Ethiopia
• In Ethiopia, both short and long migratory movements have been going on
for millennia in time and space influenced by demographic, environmental,
socio-economic and political factors.
• Population movement in Ethiopia accelerated in the early twenty century
with the rise in urban centers and the Italian occupation.
• Voluntary and individual rural out migration during the Derg Regime
was low for the following reasons:
- The 1976/77 “land to the tiller” granted land to the rural landless
farmers, which in turn reduced their motivation for out migration.
- Establishment of urban dwellers association and rural peasant
associations that demanded a person to be either a member of an
urban kebele or PA that did not encourage rural-urban or urban-rural
migration.
- The 1975 urban land nationalization that dispossessed landlords’
rights to own more than one house that further led to a chronic
shortage of urban housing which in turn discouraged migration.
 Cont’d…
- The high level of urban unemployment and underemployment coupled
with declining real incomes and growing poverty was a disincentive for
potential migrants.
- The Derge was also taking away whoever is scrounging/freeloading
around in the city as soldiers to the warfront that kept the youth from
moving to the urban areas.
 Cont’d…
• During the current regime, EPRDF
- the ethnic politics in the country and associated administrative barriers
are said to discourage inter-regional migration and sound spatial
distribution of the rural population.
- the present government’s policy that demands continued residence in
one’s rural kebele/PA as a condition for claiming access to land also
discourages the movement of rural population out of agriculture.
- the distant migration out of rural areas is the high cost of migration
relative to expected employment opportunity and return.
• Landlessness of emerging rural youth, drought and rainfall
unreliability in the highlands; and land degradation and the
resultant diminished carrying capacity of the land could be
important push factors in the out migration of people out of their
rural residence/domicile.
• Internal migration in Ethiopia is among the highest in Africa.
 B. International Migration

• International migration in Ethiopia accelerated after the 1974

revolution where many refugees/migrants were attempting to
escape political conflict, persecution/maltreatment and famine.
• The massive emigration from Ethiopia was due to the following
reasons:
- attempt of political centralization and oppression;
- the independence struggle of Eritrea from 1961-1991 that led to
violent clashes in the North; and
- the period of Red Terror between 1976-79 .
• Ethiopia could be considered as one of the countries that has a large
number of emigrants overseas.
• Large numbers of Ethiopian migrants are found in the:
- Middle East, - USA, - Canada, - Europe and
- African countries such as Sudan, Kenya, South Africa and
Botswana.
 Cont’d…
• The causes of cross-border migration include:
- Lack of employment and livelihood opportunities, and negative attitudes
attached with low paying and informal job and poor work ethics amongst
the youth.
- Rural underemployment and lack of resources
- Unfavorable political context and insecurity, civil war and political
turmoil,
- Ethiopia’s location in the fragile region of the Horn of Africa and its long
boundary that extends over 5,328 km which makes border management
difficult
- Existence of large number of local brokers with networks extending to
countries of destination;
- Misinformation and false promises by brokers/traffickers; success stories
of pioneering migrants; family and peer pressure
- Emergence of “culture of migration” and migration networks
- Demand-side factors of migration (shortage of labor in low-paying,
informal, and unsafe jobs, such as domestic work, construction,
agriculture in destination countries)
 Cont’d…
• Ethiopia is a country of origin, transit and destination for
international migration.
• Ethiopia appears to be a hub on three land routes of which:
- one leads from the Horn of Africa via Sudan, Chad, Egypt and
Libya to the Mediterranean Sea towards Europe;
- the second through Somalia and Djibouti to Yemen across the
Gulf of Aden and Red Sea towards the Middle East.
- the third migration route is the Southern irregular route that is
an overland route Kenya Tanzania towards to South Africa.
• Bole International Airport is also reported to be a hub of transit on
the air route leading to Europe and the Middle East.
 Cont’d…
• International Labor Organization/ILO/ in 2016 identified the
following migration source areas of Ethiopia with high and
growing incidence of emigration:
a. Dessie (North and South Wollo) area
b. Shashemene (Western Arsi and Bale) area
c. Jimma (Western Ethiopia) area
d. Mekelle/Tigray area
• As destination site, Ethiopia hosts the second largest number of
refugees in Africa.
• According to UNHCR 2019, refugee and asylum seeker population in
Ethiopia was about one million. Many migrants, refugees and
asylum seekers entering Ethiopia are escaping political and civil
unrest as well as harsh or undesirable conditions (e.g. drought) in
neighboring countries of South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.
 Age and Sex Structure of Ethiopian Population
• Age Structure refers to the distribution of population by age
groups.
• Age groups: 0-14 (young age)
15-64 (working age) and
65 and above (old age)
Table: Percentage distribution of the population of Ethiopia by broad
age groups in the three consecutive censuses (1984, 1994 and 2007).
 Population Distribution in Ethiopia
• Population distribution refers to the arrangement of people over
space that is provided for them to settle and make a living through
exploiting resources.
• The distribution of population in Ethiopia is very uneven as a result
of physical and human factors operating together.
1. Physical Factors that affect population distribution include:
- climate, - soil,
- vegetation, - drainage and
- slope
2. Human Factor/Influence that affect population distribution:
- historical pattern of population movement,
- the type of economic activity,
- urbanization,
- industrialization and
- the demographic variables
 Cont’d…
Fig: Population Distribution Map of Ethiopia
 Measures of Population Distribution
• Population density refers to the number of people per unit area.
• There are three ways of expressing population density. These are:
A. Crude Density:
- is found by dividing total population to total area,
i.e., CD= Total Population/Total Area
- CD does not show variations in population distribution within a given area.
- Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) region is the
administrative area with the largest population density (173 people/km2 )
followed by Amhara region.
- Gambella (13 people/km2), Somali, Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz
are regions with low densities of population.
B. Physiological Density:
- Physiological density is a ratio between total population and arable
part of a country.
i.e., PD = Total Population/Arable Land
 Cont’d…
C. Agricultural Density/Rural Density:
- This is a kind of density, which takes only agricultural
population or rural population as a numerator and cultivated
land as a denominator.
I.e., AD = Rural Population/Cultivated Land
- Agricultural density measure is more meaningful than both
crude and physiological density measures because it gives a
better indication of the pressure of population on land
resources.
- The two factors that explain variations in agricultural
density are the proportion of cultivated land and urban
population of the regions.
- Other things being equal, agricultural density tends to be higher
where both the percentage of cultivated land and the percentage of
urban population are low.
 Factors Affecting Population Distribution in Ethiopia
• The distribution of population in Ethiopia is very uneven. This extreme
unevenness is the result of the combined effect of physical and human
factors.
• The most important physical factors that affect the distribution of
population in Ethiopia include:
- climate, mainly rainfall and temperature,
- soil and
- vegetation.
• The other physical factors include drainage and slope.
• Steep slopes and surface ruggedness play their own part in restricting
human access, habitation and cultivation.
High Land Low land
Characterized by high concentration of Characterized by low concentration of
population/densely populated due to: population/sparsely populated due to:
- reliable RF, moderate temperature, good - scarcity of rainfall, high temperature, poor
soil and vegetation cover as well as absence vegetation and soil conditions as well as it is
of tropical disease infested with tropical diseases like malaria
and yellow fever
 Cont’d…
• Human factors which have influenced population distribution in
Ethiopia may be divided into two:  
A. The historical pattern of population movement and
B. Types of economic activities.
A. The Historical Pattern of Population Movement:
- After the decline of the Axumite Empire, there was southward
movement of the Tigre, Amhara, Agew and Guraghe populations
starting from the 7th century.
- There was also large-scale northward movement of the Oromos
during the 16th and 17th centuries.
- The two waves of population movements, one from the north, and
the other from the south, offer a significant explanation of denser
population distribution in and around the central highlands. 
 Cont’d…
B. Types of economic activities:
• Some of the important elements in bringing about population re-
distribution over time and explaining density variation include:
- the type of crop cultivated could also result in varying densities

i.e., .
 Cereals producing region- relatively low yield per unit area; hence,
relatively low carrying capacity and moderate density.
VS
 Enset and Coffee producing region- greater yield per unit area;
that gave rise to the very high density of population.
- development of commercial farms in some parts of Ethiopia like

the Awash valley

- urban and industrial growths
- expansion of transportation routes
 Socio-cultural Aspects of Ethiopian Population:
Education, Health and Languages

• Education:
- provides a platform for a decent livelihood.
- Literacy is a means by which members of a society are enabled
and empowered to effectively participate in the development
process.
- High level of education correlates with higher incomes, better
health, longer life span and lower mortality.
- human capital development is a cause and consequence of
development.
• Health:
- Although there is a recognizable improvements of health status,
Ethiopia has still a heavy burden of diseases
- The majority of ill health in Ethiopia is related to potentially
preventable, communicable diseases and nutritional disorders.
 Some of the root causes of the poor health status of the population
are:
1. Lack of access to clean water:
- rivers and lakes remain the most important sources of water
particularly for people in rural areas although such waters are largely
unsafe.
2. Lack of adequate nutrition:
- Problem of Food security or due to poor knowledge about nutritional
requirements and dietary habits.
Ex. About half of children under the age of five are malnourished
 Cont’d…
3.Disease related to beliefs, behaviors and traditional practices
which have a negative effect on health status include circumcision,
early marriage, and low value of girls and children.
4. Lack of health services:
- The health care infrastructure of the country had suffered from
under funding;
- Health service coverage is less than 50% of the population,
- The services tend to be urban biased
• The combined problem of poor health and inadequate nutrition
are likely to have life-long effect on children making them
- physically unfit,
- unproductive,
- mentally inactive and less dynamic.
• The major killer diseases accounting for about ¾ (75%) of all deaths
include:
- prenatal-maternal conditions,
- acute respiratory infection,
- malaria,
- nutritional deficiency for children under 5 years,
- diarrhea,
- AIDS and
- Tuberculosis.
 Cont’d…
• Languages Families and Languages of Ethiopia:
- Ethiopia is a country where about 80 languages are spoken.
• Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia, Afan Oromo and
Amharic were the major mother tounges in the country accounting
33.8% sand 29.3% respectively.
• The Ethiopian languages belong to two Supper Families:
i. Afro-Asiatic and
ii. Nilo-Saharan.
• Most Ethiopian languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic Supper
Family.
 Cont’d…
i. Afro-Asiatic:
• The Afro-Asiatic Supper Family, is divided into three families,
namely:
A. Cushitic
B. Semitic, and
C. Omotic.
A. Cushitic:
• The Cushitic languages are predominantly spoken in central,
southern, eastern and northeastern parts of Ethiopia mainly in
Afar, Oromia and Somali Regional States.
• It has the largest number of speakers and the widest spatial
coverage.
• This family of languages consists of many individual languages
such as Oromigna, Somaligna, Sidamigna, Afarigna, Kembatigna,
Hadiyigna, Alabigna, Gedeogna, and others.
 Cont’d…
B. Semetic:
• The Semitic languages are spoken in northern,
central and eastern parts of Ethiopia
• particularly in the regional states of Tigray, Amhara,
Harari and northern Southern Nations,
• Nationalities and Peoples' Regional State. Some of
the Semitic Languages include
• Amarigna, Tigrigna, Guragigna, Siltigna, Aderigna,
and Argobigna.
 Cont’d…
C. Omotic:
• The Omotic languages are predominantly spoken in the south–
central and south-western parts of Ethiopia mainly between the
Lakes of southern Rift Valley and the Omo River.
• The languages, which make up this family, are numerous
although they are not as widely spread as the Cushitic and
Omotic.
• Wolaitigna, Gamogna, Kullogna, Kefigna, and Kontigna are
some of the languages in this family spoken by millions and
many thousands of people.
• Relatively small number of people speaks most of the languages
in this group.
 Cont’d…
ii. NiloSaharan:
• The Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken in the western lowlands of
Ethiopia along the border with Sudan, in Gambella and
Benishangul Gumuz Regional States.
• These Languages are spoken by small numbers of people often less
than 500,000 people.
• The individual languages of Nilo-Saharan Supper Family include
Kunamigna, Bejigna, Gumuzigna,Maogna, Kewamigna,
Nuerigna, Annukigna, and others.
 Settlement Types and Patterns
• Types of Settlement:
- Settlements are divided into two, as rural and urban on the bases of the dominant
economic activity, population densities and availability of socioeconomic and
infrastructural facilities.
i. Rural Settlement
- rural areas are almost totally agricultural
- can be temporary or permanent
a. Temporary / Mobile Settlements:
- The lowlands in most parts of the Rift Valley and peripheral areas, being generally
hot and dry, are characterized by pastoral herding and mobile settlements.
- The settlements are mobile because pastoralists have always been searching for new
sites for water and pasture for their livestock.
b. Permanent Settlements
- Settlements are considered as permanent if there are no frequent changes in their
locations.
- Most Ethiopian rural highland settlements where crop cultivation is practiced are
permanent.
 Cont’d…
• Permanent settlements are of two types:.
a. scattered/diffused/dispersed,
b. grouped/clustered/nucleated.
a. In areas of Dispersed settlements:
- homesteads are separated by relatively long distances which
could be associated with individual land tenure and desire of
people to live near to their farm holdings.
b. Grouped settlements:
- are characterized by concentration of large number of
homesteads and households at one place for the reasons of
defense, to provide threshold population to support basic
social services as was the case of villagization program
during the Dergue.
 Cont’d…
ii. Urban Settlement
- Towns or urban centers have non-agricultural
activities as dominant.
- Population densities are generally very high in
urban area compared to densities in rural areas.
 Urban Settlements and Urbanization in Ethiopia
• Urbanization refers to the increase in the percentage of the population
living in urban centers.
• Urbanization is crucial to sustain the pace of economic development and
improve the quality of life for both urban and rural populations.
• Linkage between urban and rural areas could foster
- efficiency of value chains in agro-industry,
- improve agricultural productivity,
- promote service expansion and
- create sufficient industrial jobs in urban centers to absorb the continuous
influx of population from rural areas.
• If the rapid urbanization is not properly managed, it is presumed to bring
with it a number of development challenges such as:
- unemployment,
- housing shortages and informal settlements,
- infrastructural and service shortages,
- poverty and
- social distress.
 Cont’d…
• The major criteria used to classify settlements as urban in
Ethiopia are:
i. Minimum of 2,000 people;
ii. Two-thirds of the population engaged in non-agricultural
activities;
iii. Chartered municipality;
iv. The presence of social services and amenities
 An overview of the History of Urbanization in Ethiopia

• Modern urbanization in Ethiopia is associated with the

establishment of Addis Ababa as a capital by Emperor Menelik II
in the late 19th century.
• Unlike earlier capitals (Axum, Lalibela and Gonder), there had been
different factors that contributed to the growing and permanency
of Addis Ababa as a capital city that are indicated as follows:
- Introduction of the fast-growing Australian eucalyptus tree which satisfied
the firewood needs of the ever-growing urban population.
- Water supplies improved due to the introduction of wells and reservoirs.
- Introduction of modern schools, hospitals and health centres, hotels, cafes,
bars, bakeries, butcher’s shops, cinema, post office, modern cathedrals,
telephone and telegraph system, bank, printing press etc.
- The construction of roads that radiate from Addis Ababa; and the arrival of
the Franco-Ethiopian railway at Addis Ababa in 1917.
- The Italian occupation had also intensified the establishment of small-scale
industries and institutions, road construction thereby contributing to the
growth of the city.
 Cont’d…
• Ethiopia’s low level of urbanization can be attributed to:
- The self-sufficiency of agriculture which reinforced rural peasant
life;
- Low level of industrialization, low level structural transformation
and economic development
- The morphology of the country that hindered transportation and
communication
- The continual warfare for centuries between kingdoms in to which
the country is divided; and the frequent changes of the royal
residence
- Lack of employment, and housing shortage in urban areas that
discourage in migration;
- Political instability, ethnic conflict and social unrest during the
late 1970s and 1980s;
 Drivers of and Opportunities for more Urbanization in Ethiopia

• Some of the conditions which have been contributing to expansion of

urban areas are (drivers of urbanization):  
- The establishment of Addis Ababa as a centre of expansion, and its
permanency thereof.
-The construction of the Ethio-Djibouti railway line along which many
stations have developed into important towns.
-The five-year Italian occupation which has contributed to road building, the
establishment of small-scale industries and service giving institutions.
- The integration of the provincial capitals and major administrative centres
found in all directions by all-weather roads radiating from Addis Ababa.
- Political decentralization and provision of administrative status of
some urban settlements
- Proximity to existing cities and main transportation corridors trigger
new urban development through agglomeration and metropolisation
effects
 Cont’d…
- High Population density and growth rates in the populous highlands of
Ethiopia facilitate the emergence of towns
- Presence of new and large commercial farms, mining areas, and agro-
industries such as sugar factories; as well as mega projects like
fertilizer factories, cement factories that attract people
- Large infrastructure investments such as airports and highways, and
dry ports that attract investment and create jobs encourage
urbanization
- Opening of Universities that support entrepreneurial activity and
innovation in their local economies
- Tourism assets and attractions such as parks, resort centers, and
heritage cities and sites contribute to urban expansion.
- Development of border towns with strengthened inter-country trade
 Distribution of Urban Centers in Ethiopia

• The distribution of urban centers in Ethiopia shows considerable spatial

variation. This could be explained in terms of the varying concentration
of industries; and services such as schools, health institutions, water
supplies, electricity, means of transport, etc.
• Hierarchy of urban centers:
i. The Addis Ababa Metropolitan cluster: consist of-
- Ababa and its surrounding towns; and
- Adama and its surrounding towns
ii. Secondary city clusters: consist of-
- Lake Tana Urban Cluster: Bahir Dar, Gondar Debre Tabour, Debre Markos
- South Rift Valley Urban Cluster: Hawassa-Shashemene-Dila; and
Hosana-Sodo-Arba Minch
- Eastern Urban Cluster: Dire Dawa, Harar, Jigjiga
- Mekelle Urban Cluster: Mekelle, Adigrat, Shire, Axum
- Dessie- Kombolcha Urban Cluster.
- Jima Urban Cluster: Jima, Agaro, Mizan, Tepi, Gambella
 Cont’d…
iii.Tertiary urban clusters include:
- Nekemte Urban Cluster: Nekemte, Dembidolo, Gimbi, Metu, Assosa
- Gode - Kebri Dar oasis city network
- Semera-Mille – Asaita oasis city network
• Like most developing countries, Ethiopia’s urban population is
concentrated in one primate city, Addis Ababa.
 Growth Rate of Urban Centers

• Ethiopia’s towns are characterized by wide range of growth rates that

could be classified into one of the following three broad categories:
1. Declining Towns:
- it includes towns whose populations are actually declining in absolute
numbers because net out migration is greater than natural increase.
- This could be due to lack of employment opportunities and worsening
living conditions.
- Some of the towns that have at least once experienced a decline include,
Axum, Goba and Maichew.
2. Slow Growing Towns:
- This category is composed of towns that grow at the rate which is
less than the rate of natural increase.
- Towns such as Holeta, Harar and Gore have been indicated to
grow slowly in the recent past.
 Cont’d…
3. Fast Growing Towns:
- All towns with growth rates of greater than the natural rate of
increase make up this group.
- These towns pull large numbers of people from the declining or
slowly growing towns and rural areas due to the opportunities
they offer associated with expansion in industries, social services
or a change in their administrative status as zonal or regional
capitals.
- Given the dynamism, however, it is wise to note that a once declining
town could be slowly or even fast growing after sometime and vice
versa.
 Activities

1. How do countries get reliable population data for their

socioeconomic development planning endeavors?
2. What are the challenges and opportunities of a young
and growing population?
3. Why is Ethiopia the least urbanized but rapidly
urbanizing country?
4. Discuss the factors that explain the unevenness in the
distribution of the Ethiopian population.
5.What conditions make provision of infrastructure and
services for temporary settlements difficult? Do you
know any strategies that the government is taking to
address the problem? if yes, mention at least three
6. What were the problems of the villagization program
attempted by the Dergue?
7. Justify why Ethiopia still remains to be the least
urbanized country in the world.
8. Discuss on the major problems of urban centres of
Ethiopia