About Ethiopia

Here are some Ethiopian facts I received from another adoptive Momma... thanks Shira!

Facts About Ethiopia

* Ethiopia's official name is Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. It's capital is Addis Ababa. Ethiopia covers 437,600 sq miles, roughly 5 times the size of the U.K..
* The total population of Ethiopia is approx 76,500,000. Approx 2,500,000 people live in Ethiopia's largest city, Addis Ababa.
* The local currency is the Ethiopia Birr, made up of 100 cents. The official language of Ethiopia is Amharic.
* There is one physician per 34,988 people, and one hospital bed per 4,141 people.
* Per 1,000 people there are 200 radios, 9 telephones, 6 televisions, 2 motor vehicles, and 0.01 internet hosts per 10,000 people.
* In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.
* Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals).
* The story of coffee has its beginnings in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant still grows wild in the forest of the highlands. Ethiopian coffee has earned itself a reputation as one of the finest, most flavorful coffees in the world. The Ethiopian coffee ceremony takes roughly 30 minutes to prepare and consists of each guest drinking a minimum of 3 cups of coffee.
* Coffee is critical to the Ethiopian economy (Ethiopia’s only major export). Unfortunately, coffee prices fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
* Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa

More from a UNICEF study ...

*Ethiopia counts one of the largest populations of orphans in the world: 13 per cent of children throughout the country are missing one or both parents. This represents an estimated 4.6 million children – 800,000 of whom were orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
*In Addis Ababa more than 30 per cent of girls aged 10-14 are not living with their parents. Twenty per cent of these 30 per cent have run away from child marriages.
* Twelve per cent of adolescents aged 10-14 – of the 30 per cent not living with their parents – surveyed in two areas of Addis Ababa were domestic workers. They are very young, very vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and typically have no legal or social support.
* In the Amhara region, the average age of marriage for girls is 14, while at the national level the mean age for marriage is 17.
* There are about 2.5 million children with disabilities.