Ethiopia States (original) (raw)

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Updates:

Sidama achieved statehood as of 2020-06-18, following a referendum in which the overwhelming majority of voters favored more autonomy. [9] Previously, it was a subdivision of Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples state. ISO added a code for Sidama on 2021-11-25, but there is no GENC code (the replacement for FIPS code) assigned as of 2022-03-26.

I replaced the 2008 population projections (source [8]) with the actual 2007 census data (source [4]), which I think are more reliable.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-4, dated 2002-12-10, adds Dire Dawa administration to the list of subdivisions; changes the status of Addis Ababa from "capital city" to administration; and includes the Amharic names of the subdivisions. I have added the new code for Dire Dawa to the table below.

Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2002-01-10. Previously, the FIPS standard listed thirty regions. In this update, those regions are expunged, to be replaced with eleven divisions (nine states and two administrations).

Country overview:

Short name ETHIOPIA
ISO code ET
FIPS code ET
Language Amharic (am)
Time zone +3
Capital Addis Ababa

Europeans have used the names Ethiopia and Abyssinia interchangeably for the country in this location. Italy had territorial ambitions over the region in the 19th century. However, as of 1900, Italy in fact controlled only Eritrea. Ethiopia's independence was recognized by the European powers in 1906. In 1935, Italy invaded, and in 1936-06 Ethiopia was made part of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana), along with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. The British expelled the Italians in 1941 and liberated Ethiopia. The United Nations voted to create a federation of Eritrea and Ethiopia, which lasted from 1952 until 1962, when Ethiopia annexed Eritrea. Eritrea became an independent country again on 1993-05-27. The boundaries of Ethiopia have changed somewhat during the century, and the border with Somalia has never been finally established.

Other names of country:

  1. Amharic: Ityopia
  2. Danish: Etiopien
  3. Dutch: Ethiopi�, Federale Democratische Republiek Ethiopi� (formal)
  4. English: People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (formal)
  5. Finnish: Etiopia
  6. French: �thiopie f
  7. German: �thiopien n
  8. Icelandic: Et��p�a
  9. Italian: Etiopia f
  10. Norwegian: Den f�derale demokratiske republikk Etiopia (formal) (Bokm�l), Den f�derale demokratiske republikken Etiopia (formal) (Nynorsk), Etiopia
  11. Portuguese: Eti�pia, Rep�blica f Democr�tica Federal da Eti�pia f (formal)
  12. Russian: Абиссиния (obsolete), Федеративная Демократическая Республика Эфиопия (formal)
  13. Spanish: Etiop�a, Rep�blica f Popular Democr�tica de Etiop�a f (formal)
  14. Swedish: Etiopien
  15. Turkish: Habeşistan (obsolete), Etiyopya Federal Demokratik Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name:

Greek Aithiopis, from aithe: burn, opsis: appearance (i.e. dark-skinned natives appeared burnt)

Primary subdivisions:

Ethiopia is divided into ten kilil (states) and two astedader (administrations).

State HASC FIPS Population Area(km.�) Area(mi.�)
Addis Ababa ET.AA ET44 2,739,551 530 205
Afar ET.AF ET45 1,390,273
Amara ET.AM ET46 17,221,976 159,202 61,468
Benshangul-Gumaz ET.BE ET47 784,345 49,289 19,031
Dire Dawa ET.DD ET48 341,834 1,213 468
Gambela Peoples ET.GA ET49 307,096 25,802 9,962
Harari People ET.HA ET50 183,415 311 120
Oromia ET.OR ET51 26,993,933 353,007 136,297
Sidama ET.SI 3,104,958 6,833 2,638
Somali ET.SO ET52 4,445,219
Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples ET.SN ET54 11,824,590 105,510 40,738
Tigrai ET.TI ET53 4,316,988 50,079 19,336
12 divisions 73,750,932 1,127,127 435,186
State: except for Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa, which are administrations. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced byhyphens, these are the same as the state codes from ISO standard 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Population: 2007-05-28 census (source [4]). When Sidama state was formed, Itook the last official population and area of the former Sidama zone. Since Sidama zone wasformerly a subdivision of Southern Nations, I subtracted the figures for Sidama from those ofSouthern Nations.

The total population in the 2007 exceeds the sum of the state populations by 96,754. The census report assigns that extra amount to an "Especial Enumeration Area."

Further subdivisions:

See the Zones of Ethiopia page.

As of 1953, there were twelve teklay ghizatoch (provinces), subdivided into 76 awraji ghizatoch (subprovinces), which were subdivided into wereda (districts), which were subdivided into mikitil wereda (subdistricts). By 1965, the number of provinces had increased to 14, and the number of subprovinces to 82. In 1974, the new military government changed the status of the fourteen provinces to kifle hager (regions), and reorganized their subdivisions. As a result, there were 102 awraja subdivided into 556 wereda. After the reorganization in 1991, there were about 600 wereda. The 2008 data show 63 zones and 529 wereda.

Territorial extent:

In the territorial division which prevailed up until 1987, Gojam contained the island of Daga, or Dek, in Lake Tana. Eritrea contained many Red Sea islands, as described in the country listing for Eritrea.

Dire Dawa lies on the border between Oromia and Somali regions.

The UN LOCODE page for Ethiopia lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names:

  1. Addis Ababa: Amharic for the new flower
  2. Harar: Amharic harar, corruption of a word meaning commercial station
  3. Somali: see Somalia

Change history:

  1. 1936: Italian East Africa was formed by merging Italy's colonies, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Italian Somaliland. It was subdivided into six governments: Amhara, Eritrea, Galla and Sidama, Harar, Shoa (Addis Abeba), and Somalia.
  2. 1952-09-15: Eritrea joined Ethiopia in a federation.
  3. 1962: Eritrea became a province of Ethiopia.
  4. Source [5] lists the following provinces of Ethiopia (modified to take into account the 1952 federation with Eritrea). The capitals are taken from an Ethiopian government source. I've added HASC codes in order to serve as a reference for the Zones of Ethiopia page.
Province HASC Area(mi.�) Capital
Arusi ET.AR 14,000 Assela
Begemdir ET.BD 30,000 Gondar
Eritrea ET.ER 47,876 Asmara
Gamu-Gafa ET.GG 15,000 Chencha
Gojjam ET.GJ 24,300 Debre Markos
Harar ET.HR 156,000 Harar
Ilubabor ET.IL 19,000 Gorie
Kaffa ET.KF 19,000 Jimma
Shoa ET.SH 30,400 Addis Ababa
Sidamo-Borana ET.SD 39,500 Yirga Alem
Tigr� ET.TI 26,500 Mekele
Wallaga ET.WG 25,900 Nekemtie
Wallo ET.WO 30,400 Dessie
Total 457,142
  1. ~1963: Bale province (capital Bale, HASC code ET.BL) split from Harar.
  2. ~1963: Capital of Gamo Gofa province moved from Chencha to Arba Minch.
  3. 1974: Provinces changed to regions.
  4. ~1978: Capital of Ilubabor province moved from Gorie to Metu; capital of Sidamo province moved from Yirga Alem to Awasa.
  5. 1981: Addis Ababa region split from Shewa; Aseb region split from Eritrea
  6. This was the division of Ethiopia prevailing in 1987:
Region FIPS Population Area(km.�) Area(mi.�) Awr Capital
Addis Ababa 1,654,327 218 100 Addis Ababa
Arsi ET01 1,860,606 23,500 9,100 3 Asela
Aseb 101,352 Aseb
Bale ET03 1,126,697 124,600 48,100 5 Goba
Eritrea ET04 2,938,113 117,600 45,400 9 Asmara
Gamo Gofa ET05 1,395,331 39,500 15,300 4 Arba Minch
Gojam ET06 3,632,276 61,600 23,800 7 Debre Markos
Gonder ET02 3,270,440 74,200 28,600 7 Gonder
Harerge ET07 4,657,859 259,700 100,300 13 Harer
Ilubabor ET08 1,078,308 47,400 18,300 5 Metu
Kefa ET09 2,740,773 54,600 21,100 6 Jima
Shewa ET10 9,059,917 85,200 32,900 11 Addis Ababa
Sidamo ET11 4,241,827 117,300 45,300 6 Awasa
Tigray ET12 2,700,921 65,900 25,400 8 Mekele
Welega ET13 2,770,598 71,200 27,500 6 Nekemte
Welo ET14 4,075,959 79,400 30,700 12 Dese
Totals 47,305,304 1,221,918 471,900 102
FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4 Population: 1988 estimate Awr: number of awraja by province
  1. 1987-09: Ethiopia reorganized into 25 administrative regions and five autonomous regions. The autonomous regions were Āseb, Dirē Dawa, Eritrea, Ogadēn, and Tigray. This new administrative structure may never have been fully implemented. Here is a table describing the new divisions. Note that this table shows 27 autonomous regions instead of the 25 expected. The Central Statistical Authority of Ethiopia doesn't mention Gamo Gofa or Nazrēt. The FIPS document doesn't mention East Shewa or South Omo, and uses the name Omo rather than North Omo.
Region FIPS Pop-1993 Pop-1982 Area(km.�) Area(mi.�) Alternate names
Addis Ababa ET15 2,657,559 2,379,500 5,200 2,000
Ārsī ET01 2,157,227 1,984,000 23,700 9,200 Arusi
Āseb ET16 246,373 451,900 69,800 26,900 Assab
Assosa ET17 570,910 525,900 23,100 8,900 Āsosa
Balē ET38 1,063,382 977,300 67,300 26,000 Mendebo
Borena ET18 723,746 668,800 94,000 36,300
Dirē Dawa ET22 521,691 476,000 29,300 11,300
East Gojam ET28 1,699,460 1,563,200 13,900 5,400 Misrak Gojam
East Hārergē ET29 2,774,346 2,552,300 90,600 35,000 Misrak Hārergē
East Shewa 1,026,180 934,500 12,800 4,900 Misrak Shewa
Eritrea ET36 3,138,600 93,700 36,200 Ērtra
Gambēla ET23 195,023 179,400 26,100 10,100 Gambella
Gamo Gofa ET39 Gemu Gwefa
Īlubabor ET40 3,117,220 2,867,900 35,100 13,600 Illubabor
Kefa ET41 1,148,596 1,057,900 40,100 15,500 Keffa
Metekel ET24 416,380 383,300 30,500 11,800 Metekel Nazaret
Nazrēt ET30
North Gonder ET19 2,038,164 1,873,000 62,000 23,900 Semēn Gonder
North Omo ET32 3,046,859 2,806,000 29,900 11,500 Semēn Omo
North Shewa ET20 2,570,128 2,364,300 27,000 10,400 Semēn Shewa
North Welo ET21 1,621,520 1,491,700 30,800 11,900 Semēn Welo
Ogadēn ET31 906,632 833,200 179,300 69,200
Sīdamo ET42 2,980,044 2,741,700 20,700 8,000
South Gonder ET33 1,867,766 1,719,900 17,100 6,600 Debub Gonder
South Omo 269,197 248,000 22,000 8,500 Debub Omo
South Shewa ET34 3,235,768 2,977,500 16,800 6,500 Debub Shewa
South Welo ET35 2,675,995 2,461,700 20,700 8,000 Debub Welo
Tigray ET37 2,999,948 2,757,100 53,400 20,600 Tigre
Welega ET43 2,673,652 2,460,300 42,600 16,400 Walaga
West Gojam ET25 2,210,466 2,032,800 17,300 6,700 Mirab Gojam
West Hārergē ET26 1,482,628 1,364,200 33,200 12,800 Mirab Hārergē
West Shewa ET27 2,934,434 2,702,000 23,200 9,000 Mirab Shewa
Totals 51,831,294 50,973,900 1,251,200 483,100
FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4 Pop-1993: 1993 estimate Pop-1982: 1982 estimate
  1. 1991: Ethiopia reorganized into twelve rasgez akababiwach (autonomous regions) and two chartered cities. This division didn't last long enough to be recognized by the FIPS standard. Sources differ about the names of these divisions. The best reconstruction I can make is that Addis Ababa and Harer were the chartered cities, and the autonomous regions were Afar, Agew, Amhara, Benishangul, Gambela, Gurage-Hadiya-Kambata, Kefa, Omo, Oromo, Sidamo, Somali, and Tigray.
  2. 1993-05-27: Eritrea became independent. Āseb and Eritrea ceased being regions of Ethiopia.
  3. 1994-12: Under a new constitution, Ethiopia reorganized into nine astedader akababiwach (administrative regions) and one federal capital district.
  4. ~1998: Dire Dawa became an administration.

Other names of subdivisions:

Amharic uses its own alphabet. Many of the variants shown here are just different transliterations from the Amharic alphabet.

  1. Addis Ababa: Āddīs Ābaba, Addis Abeba, Adis-Abeba, Ādīs Ābeba (variant); Ad�s Abeba (Spanish)
  2. Afar: Affar (variant)
  3. Amhara: Amara (variant)
  4. Arsi: Arssi, Arusi, Arussi, Ārsī (variant)
  5. Bale: Balē, Mendebo (variant)
  6. Begemdir: Begemder & Semien (variant)
  7. Benshangul-Gumaz: Benishangul, Beni Shangul, B�nishangul, Benishangul-Gumuz, Binshangul Gumuz (variant)
  8. Eritrea: Ertra (variant; see also country listing for Eritrea)
  9. Gambela Peoples: Gambela Hizboch (Amharic); Gambella (variant)
  10. Gamo Gofa: Gamu Gofa, Gemu Gefa, Gemu Gofa, Gemu Goffa, Gemu Gwefa (with or without hyphen) (variant)
  11. Gojam: Gojjam, Gwejam (variant)
  12. Gonder: Bagemder, Begemder, Begemdir, Begemdir and Simen, Gondar (variant)
  13. Gurage-Hadiya-Kambata: Gurage-Hadiya-Wolayta, Gurage Kembatahadiya (variant)
  14. Harari People: Harer (variant); Hareri Hizb (Amharic)
  15. Harerge: Harar, Hararge, Harargue, Harer, Hārergē (variant)
  16. Ilubabor: Illabobor, Illubabor, Ilubbabor, Īlubabor (variant)
  17. Kefa: Kafa, Kaffa (variant)
  18. Oromia: Oromiya (variant)
  19. Shewa: Shawa, Shoa (variant)
  20. Sidamo: Sidama, Sīdamo, Sidamo-Boran, Sidamo-Borana (variant)
  21. Somali: Sumale (variant)
  22. Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples: S.N.N.P. (abbreviation); YeDebub Biheroch Bihereseboch na Hizboch (Amharic)
  23. Tigray: Tegr�, Tigrai, Tigre (variant); Tigr� (French)
  24. Welega: Walaga, Wallaga, Wallega, Wellega, Wollega (variant)
  25. Welo: Elo, Wallo, Wollo (variant)

Sources:

  1. [1] Library of Congress country study (retrieved 1999).
  2. [2] "People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Facts and Figures". Central Statistical Authority, Addis Ababa, 1990.
  3. [3] "Administrative Sub-divisions of Ethiopia" (as of 1964-07-07). Ministry of Interior, Central Statistical Office, Imperial Ethiopian Government. Addis Ababa, July 1964.
  4. [4] Population and Housing Census Report - Country - 2007. Central Statistical Agency, 2010-07 (retrieved 2014-02-12).
  5. [5] Encyclop�dia Britannica World Atlas, 1957 edition.
  6. [6] Europa World Year Book 2001. Europa Publications, London, 2001.
  7. [7] "Ershiyi (21) Shiji Shijie Diming Lu", Beijing, 2001.
  8. [8] A report on the website of the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia, headed "Section-B Population" (http://www.csa.gov.et/text\_files/national%20statistics%202007/Population.pdf, dead link, retrieved 2008-03-15). It showed populations and areas for the primary, secondary, and tertiary subdivisions of Ethiopia. The populations were based on projections from the 1994 census. Areas were measured from maps used to take the census, and were missing for Afar and Somali regions. I used the CIA World Factbook to get the total area of the country.
  9. [9] Ethiopia Insight, "Sidama's Statehood Quest Beyond Recognition", 2021-06-17