Ethiopia’s population has grown from 33.5 million in 1983 to 86.6 million in 2013. The population was only about 9 million in the 19th century. The population of Ethiopia grew at an average annual rate of 2.6% between 1994 and 2007, down from 2.8% during the period 1983–1994. Currently, the population growth rate is among the top ten countries in the world. The population is forecast to grow to over 210 million by 2060, which would be an increase from 2011 estimates by a factor of about 2.5.
The country’s population is highly diverse, containing over 80 different ethnic groups. The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, at 34.4% of the nation’s population. The Amhara represent 27.0% of the country’s inhabitants, while the Somali and Tigray represent 6.22% and 6.08% of the population, respectively.
Other prominent ethnic groups are as follows: Sidama with 4%, Gurage with 2.5%, Welayta with 2.3%, Afar with 1.7%, Hadiya with 1.7%, Gamo with 1.5%, and others with 12.6%.
Afro-Asiatic communities make up the majority of the population. Among these, Semitic speakers often collectively refer to themselves as Habesha or Abesha. The Arabic form of this term (Al-Habasha) is the etymological basis of “Abyssinia,” the former name of Ethiopia in English and other European languages.
Ethiopia 