Ethiopia (formerly known as Abyssinia) is one of the oldest lands in the globe and Africa's second-most populous land.

Its population of over seventy two million makes the nation the second largest in Africa, after Nigeria & Egypt and places it as number 17 in population among the one hundred and ninty three countries of the globe.

The country's population is growing at a rapid stride, adding some two-million people every year.

Within the Eastern Africa region, Ethiopia is the second largest following the Sudan which is approximately twice the size, yet Ethiopia has more than twice the population of Sudan and approximately one-third of all the population in the eleven countries of the Eastern Africa region.

Just about 3 per cent of the population is beyond sixty five years of age, with another forty four percent of the population below fifteen years of age. There are 99 males for every 100 females in the country.

The annual population growth rate for two thousand to two thousand and five was 2.46 percent, with expected population for the year two thousand and fifteen at ninty three million eight hundred and forty five. The population density in two thousand and two was 61/km2.

The major ethnic/linguistic groups are the Oromo (40%), Amhara (22%), Tigrai (10%), Sidamo ( nine percent) and Somali (6%).

The 1987 population of Addis Ababa, the capital, was approximately 1.600.000, yet by 1994 it had rised to 2.3 million and nowadays it probably stands at around the 5000000 mark.

For other large towns, reliable population figures is not ready for use but some sources place the population of Dire Dawa (265,000), Adama (one hundred ninty thousand), Gonder (151,000), Bishoftu (hundred two thousand),
Harar (hundred thousand), and Gambella (100.000).

Towns with a population of greater than 50,000, in approximate descending order of size, are: Kombolcha, Shashemene, Adigrat, Arba Minch, Nekemte, Debre Markos, Asela, Hosaina, Sodo, Debre Birhan, Gambella, Ziway and Dilla.

In year two thousand and fifty, the Washington-based Population Reference agency affirms Ethiopia's population will undergo a change by hundred and twenty per cent. It means in forty-four years, the population of Ethiopia is estimated to be app one hundred and sixty nine million people.

It seems serious measure should be taken to tackle Ethiopia's high fertility rate before it causes more baulks to the economic growth. Yet those efforts are in competition with several other significant development matters in Ethiopia like food security, basic infrastructure, healthcare and education.