Ethiopian Demographic and
Health Profile
Ethiopia is administratively divided up into nine main regions – Afar, Amhara, Benishagul-Gumuz, Gambella, Harar, Oromiya, Somali, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP), and Tigray. As a lower-income country, it faces many of the challenges associated with that status. Many international organizations provide aid to Ethiopia, particularly with regard to the Public Health sector. Organizations such as the WHO and UNICEF are examples of the international organizations that provide this foreign aid. Some of the challenges that Ethiopia faces with regard to its health care system are lack of infrastructure, uneven distribution of facilities, and lack of accurate health data. Birth rate and death rates can be used as indicators to better understand Ethiopia's standing with regard to social and economic development. Ethiopia is currently in stage three-late expansion in its demographic transition. Figure 1 highlights the population trend from 1980 to 2017 of Ethiopia. Over the past 40 years, Ethiopia’s population pyramid has maintained a bell shape curve with minimal changes to the population distribution. This indicates that countries high birth and death rates. Its population has rapidly increased as there is a high birthdate of 32/1000 people, in addition to the high death rates of 7.2/1000 people and the life expectancy of 65 years of age.
Figure 1: Population Pyramids of Ethiopia Between the years 1980-2017
Demographic Indicators
of Ethiopia
per 1,000 people between 2015-2016
The following section illustrates the demographic information of Ethiopia
Economic Indicators
of Ethiopia
Gender Equality and
Empowerment Indicators
In many sectors of Ethiopia, there is a major issue with regard to gender disparities, one of which is education. Based on the graphics below, more men go to school than women do, this could be accounted for by many cultural aspects that would prevent girls from going to school. An example of this would be girls are expected to stay home and help around in the house preventing them from going to school. Educating girls is an important health problem because once the girls are educated it helps to tackle another large health issue Ethiopia faces such as maternal health. Maternal health is a major public health concern in Ethiopia, out of the total number of births, only 29% of them were delivered by a skilled health professional.
As previously stated, there are 9 different regions within Ethiopia, each with their own distinct cultures and traditions, however, they all suffer similar disparities. The majority of the Ethiopian population lives in rural areas and as a result, their access to education and other vital resources is limited. Those that are educated tend to migrate to the capital city, Addis Ababa, and try to provide for their family what little they can. An example of these disparities would be that the Afar region, which is located in northern Ethiopia has the highest rate of live births. This can be accounted for by the lack of education and resources to prevent pregnancies. This disparity can also be caused by the inequalities in service utilization. A study conducted by Firew Tekle Bobo indicated that women who had a higher socio-economic status were more proactive in terms of preventative methods as well as pre-and post-natal check-ups. The data illustrated that antenatal care by skilled providers was three times higher among women with post-secondary education than mothers with no education.
Burden Of Disease
As there are many international organizations in Ethiopia, there are many different methods by which they monitor the progress of the country. One of these ways is to analyze the epidemiologic transition of the country. This refers to a shift in the causes of death from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases. The leading causes of deaths in Ethiopia are cardiovascular disease and diarrheal diseases based on figures 2.3 and 2.4, which are non-communicable and communicable diseases respectively. However, the DALY’s for cardiovascular diseases are greater, 2853.19/100,000 than diarrheal diseases, 2656.42/100,000, and these values are lower than in previous years. This indicates that Ethiopia is in the second stage of its epidemiologic transition which highlights that the mortality rates and their frequency is steadily decreasing.
Malaria is another large public health issue Ethiopia faces. Malaria is responsible for 213 deaths in every 100,000 people (see table in appendices). It is an infectious disease that affects many parts of Ethiopia, particularly people in more rural areas as they may not have the proper resources needed to prevent the spread of the disease. These effects children the most, which is a major issue because they are the future of Ethiopia. Additionally, this should be addressed because there are so many people that are affected by it and the primary prevention methods are relatively cheap.
TB is an important health issue that needs to be addressed in Ethiopia, it is an infection that affects a large portion of the population and the majority of the cases are in more rural areas. The incidence rates are 359/100,000 and the death rates are 64/100,000 (see table in appendices). In addition, there are many health disparities that affect people in more rural areas. Lastly, TB should be addressed as it affects children, which are the most which are the populations most vulnerable, groups.
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**Detailed Health Profile can be found in appendices**
Figure 2: Burden of Disease, 2016
Figure 2.1: DALY’s lost to the leading causes of death in Ethiopia Vs. the Afr-E region per 100,000 people in 2016
Figure 2.2: DALY’s lost to communicable, maternal. parental & nutritional diseases/conditions in Ethiopia Vs. the Afr-E region per 100,000 people in 2016
Figure 2.3: Top three causes of DALY loss for non-communicable diseases/conditions in Ethiopia Vs. the Afr-E region per 100,000 people in 2016
Figure 2.1: DALY’s lost to injuries in Ethiopia Vs. the Afr-E region per 100,000 people in 2016
