Demographics
Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), the Afar Regional State has a total population of 1,390,273, consisting of 775,117 men and 615,156 women; urban inhabitants number 185,135 or 13.32% of the population, a further 409,123 or 29.43% were pastoralists. With an estimated area of 96,707 square kilometers, this region has an estimated density of 14.38 people per square kilometer. For the entire region 247,255 households were counted, which results in an average for the Region of 5.6 persons to a household, with urban households having on average 4 and rural households 6 people. Ethnic groups include Afar (90.03%), Amhara (5.22%), Argobba (1.55%) Tigrinnya people (1.15%), Oromo (0.61%), Welayta (0.59%), and Hadiya (0.18%). 95.3% of the population is Muslim and 4.7% is Christian (3.9% Orthodox Christian, 0.7% P'ent'ay, and 0.1% Catholics).
In the previous census, conducted in 1994, the region's population was reported to be 1,106,383 of whom 626,839 were men and 479,544 women; urban inhabitants were 85,879 or 7.76% of the population. The major ethnic compositions were the Afar (91.8%), Amhara (4.5%), Argobba (0.9%), Tigrayans (0.8%), Oromo (0.8%), Welayta (0.5%), and Hadiya (0.2%). In the urban areas, the Amhara ethnicity were the most numerous (42.5%), placing the Afar in second place (32.6%), followed by Tigrinnya (7.8%), Oromo (6.7%), Argobba (2.6%), and Welayta (2.2%). 95.6% of the population were Muslim, 3.9% Orthodox Christians, 0.4% Protestants, and 0.1% Catholics.
Afar is predominantly (89.96%) spoken in the region and is the working language of the state. Other languages with a significant number of speakers in the state include Amharic (6.83%), Tigrinnya (1.06%), Argobba (0.79%), Wolaitigna (0.43%), and Oromifa (0.4%).
According to the CSA, as of 2004, 48.57% of the total population had access to safe drinking water, of whom 26.89% were rural inhabitants and 78.11% were urban. Values for other reported common indicators of the standard of living for the Afar Regional State as of 2005 include the following: 67.3% of the inhabitants fall into the lowest wealth quintile; adult literacy for men is 27% and for women 15.6%; and the Regional infant mortality rate is 61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which is less than the nationwide average of 77; at least half of these deaths occurred in the infants’ first month of life. On 20 April 2007, the Regional government announced that it had increased health coverage from 34% to 40%, the result of construction of 64 new health clinics, increasing the total for the Region to 111.
Read more about this topic: Afar Region