Ethiopia
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ Yäʾityop̣p̣yawi Federalawi Demokrasiyawi Ripäblik
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| Anthem: ወደፊት ገሥግሺ ፣ ውድ እናት ኢትዮጵያ (Amharic) ("March Forward, Dear Mother Ethiopia") | |||||||||||||
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| Capital and largest city | Addis Ababa 9°1′N 38°45′E / 9.017°N 38.750°E | ||||||||||||
| Official languages | |||||||||||||
| Ethnic groups | |||||||||||||
| Religion (2016[7]) |
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| Demonym | Ethiopian | ||||||||||||
| Government | Federal parliamentary republic[8] under an authoritarian government[9][10] | ||||||||||||
| Taye Atske Selassie | |||||||||||||
| Abiy Ahmed | |||||||||||||
| Temesgen Tiruneh Adem Farah | |||||||||||||
| Tewodros Mihret | |||||||||||||
| Legislature | Federal Parliamentary Assembly | ||||||||||||
| House of Federation | |||||||||||||
| House of Peoples' Representatives | |||||||||||||
| Formation | |||||||||||||
| 1270 | |||||||||||||
| 7 May 1769 | |||||||||||||
| 11 February 1855 | |||||||||||||
| 1904 | |||||||||||||
| 9 May 1936 | |||||||||||||
| 31 January 1942 | |||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• Total | 1,104,300 km2 (426,400 sq mi) (26th) | ||||||||||||
• Water (%) | 0.7 | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• 2025 estimate |  138,902,185[11][12] (10th) | ||||||||||||
• 2007 census | 73,750,932[6] | ||||||||||||
• Density | 92.7/km2 (240.1/sq mi) (123rd) | ||||||||||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2024 estimate | ||||||||||||
• Total |  US$434.44 bn[13] (55th) | ||||||||||||
• Per capita | US$4,050[13] (159th) | ||||||||||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2024 estimate | ||||||||||||
• Total |  US$145.03 bn[13] (59th) | ||||||||||||
• Per capita | US$1,350[13] (159th) | ||||||||||||
| Gini (2021) |  31.1[14]medium inequality | ||||||||||||
| HDI (2022) | 0.492[15] low (176th) | ||||||||||||
| Currency | Birr (ETB) | ||||||||||||
| Time zone | UTC+3 (EAT) | ||||||||||||
| Date format | dd/mm/yyyy | ||||||||||||
| Calling code | +251 | ||||||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | ET | ||||||||||||
| Internet TLD | .et | ||||||||||||
Ethiopia,[a] officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE), is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the southeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia covers a land area of 1,104,300 km2 (426,400 sq mi).[16] As of 2026[update], it has around 138 million inhabitants, making it the 10th-most populous country in the world and 2nd most populous country in Africa.[17] The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.[18]
Anatomically modern humans emerged in what is now Ethiopia.[19][20][21][22][23] In 980 BC, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilisation in the region for 900 years. Christianity arrived to the kingdom in 330 AD,[24] while Islam gained influence during the first Hijra in 615.[25] After the collapse of Aksum in 960, the Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts of Ethiopia. The Shewan usurper, Yekuno Amlak, overthrew the dynasty in 1270 at the Battle of Ansata, inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and the Solomonic dynasty – asserting its lineage through Aksumite legitimacy by the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba, and Menelik I was the first emperor. Under Emperor Amda Seyon I (r. 1314–1344), the empire grew in prestige through territorial expansion against neighbouring Muslim territories. Later, the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529–1543) weakened the empire and opened the way for the Oromo expansion. The growing influence of the Oromo at the Gondarine court ultimately contributed to the fragmentation known as Zemene Mesafint, beginning in 1769. Emperor Tewodros II ended the Zemene Mesafint at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and modernisation of Ethiopia.
In the late 19th century, Ethiopia repelled foreign invasions from both Egypt and Italy, most notably defeating an Italian invasion at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. Under Emperor Menelik II, it also expanded its territory, remaining independent during the Scramble for Africa and establishing its current borders. Ethiopia lost its sovereignty in 1936, when Italy under Benito Mussolini invaded during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, and following Ethiopia's defeat, Italian East Africa was established. In 1941, during World War II, it was liberated by the British Army, and its full sovereignty was restored in 1944. The Derg, a Soviet-backed military junta, took power in 1974 after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, and ruled the country for nearly 17 years amidst the Ethiopian Civil War. Following the dissolution of the Derg in 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) dominated the country with a new constitution and ethnic-based federalism. Since then, Ethiopia has suffered from prolonged and unsolved inter-ethnic clashes and political instability marked by authoritarianism. From 2018, regional and ethnically based factions carried out armed attacks in multiple ongoing wars throughout Ethiopia.[26]
Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state with over 80 different ethnic groups. Christianity is the most widely professed faith in the country, with the largest denomination being the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, followed by Islam and a small percentage of traditional faiths. The country is a founding member of the UN, and hosts the headquarters of the African Union Commission and many other global non-governmental organisations focused on Africa, also becoming a full member of BRICS in 2024.[27] Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries but is sometimes considered an emerging power,[28][29] having the fastest economic growth in sub-Saharan African countries because of foreign direct investment in expansion of agricultural and manufacturing industries; agriculture is the country's largest economic sector, accounting for over 37% of the GDP as of 2022. Although the Ethiopian economy has experienced consistent growth, in terms of per capita income and the Human Development Index the country remains among the poorest in Africa.[30] Ethiopia faces numerous challenges, including high rates of poverty, human rights violations, widespread ethnic discrimination, and a literacy rate of 60%.[31][32][33]
Names
Tradition holds that the name Ethiopia (ኢትዮጵያ) comes from the name of the first King of Ethiopia, Ethiop, or Ethiopis.
Ayele Berkerie explains:
According to an Ethiopian tradition, the term Ethiopia is derived from the word Ethiopis, a name of the Ethiopian king, the seventh in the ancestral lines. Metshafe Aksum or the Ethiopian Book of Aksum identifies Itiopis as the twelfth king of Ethiopia and the father of Aksumawi. The Ethiopians pronounce Ethiopia እትዮጵያ with a Sades or the sixth sound እ as in incorporate and the graph ጰ has no equivalent in English or Latin graphs. Ethiopis is believed to be the twelfth direct descendant of Adam. His father is identified as Kush, while his grandfather is known as Kam.[34]
In the 15th-century Ge'ez Book of Axum, the name is ascribed to a legendary individual called Ityopp'is. He was an extra-biblical son of Cush, son of Ham, said to have founded the city of Axum.[35]
The Greek name Αἰθιοπία (from Αἰθίοψ, 'an Ethiopian') is a compound word, later explained as derived from the Greek words αἴθω and ὤψ (eithō "I burn" + ōps "face"). According to the Liddell-Scott Jones Greek-English Lexicon, the designation properly translates as burnt-face in noun form and red-brown in adjectival form.[36] The historian Herodotus used the appellation to denote those parts of Africa south of the Sahara that were then known within the Ecumene (habitable world).[37] The earliest mention of the term is found in the works of Homer, where it is used to refer to two people groups, one in Africa and one in the east from eastern Turkey to India.[38] This Greek name was borrowed into