Ethiopia
|
| Basic Facts |
| Country name |
conventional long form: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
conventional short form: Ethiopia local long form: Ityop'iya Federalawi Demokrasiyawi Ripeblik local short form: Ityop'iya former: Abyssinia, Italian East Africa abbreviation: FDRE |
| Gevernment type | federal republic |
| Capital |
name: Addis Ababa
geographic coordinates: 9 02 N, 38 42 E time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Flag description | three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands; Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, and the three main colors of her flag were so often adopted by other African countries upon independence that they became known as the pan-African colors |
| Currency | birr (ETB) |
| Internet country code | .et |
| Ports and terminals | Ethiopia is landlocked and uses the port of Djibouti |
| Agriculture products | cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes, qat, cut flowers; hides, cattle, sheep, goats; fish |
| Industries | food processing, beverages, textiles, leather, chemicals, metals processing, cement |
| Geography |
| Location | Eastern Africa, west of Somalia |
| Coordinates | 8 00 N, 38 00 E |
| Continent | Africa |
| Area |
total: 1,127,127 sq km
land: 1,119,683 sq km water: 7,444 sq km |
| Boundaries |
total: 5,328 km
border countries: Djibouti 349 km, Eritrea 912 km, Kenya 861 km, Somalia 1,600 km, Sudan 1,606 km |
| Coastline | 0 km (landlocked) |
| Climate | tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation |
| Terrain | high plateau with central mountain range divided by Great Rift Valley |
| Natural resources | small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, natural gas, hydropower |
| Natural hazards | geologically active Great Rift Valley susceptible to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions; frequent droughts |
| People |
| Population | 74,777,981
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.) |
| Ethnic groups | Oromo 40%, Amhara and Tigre 32%, Sidamo 9%, Shankella 6%, Somali 6%, Afar 4%, Gurage 2%, other 1% |
| Religions | Muslim 45%-50%, Ethiopian Orthodox 35%-40%, animist 12%, other 3%-8% |
| Languages | Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromigna, Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic, other local languages, English (major foreign language taught in schools) |
