Ethiopia is a country located on the Eastern coast of Africa, in between Eritrea to the north and Kenya to the south. I picked this country because I learned a lot about this country during a course I had taken last semester. This country has such a rich culture and a diverse population of ethnic groups.

Ethiopia has a population of around 104 million people with an annual population growth rate of 2.5%. Around 47% of Ethiopia’s population is under the age of 15 and only 4% of the population is over the age 65. Many of Ethiopian families are big, with a fertility rate of about 5 children per woman. Ethiopians also have a dependency ratio of 86 dependents per 100 working adults. This is probably due to familial traditions in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia can be considered a developing country, with an annual GDP growth rate of about 7%. 37% of the population in Ethiopia is living on less than $2 a day. The wealthiest population is based around Addis Ababa while the poorest population is concentrated in the Affar region.

Education is primarily scarce in the rural regions of Ethiopia, as 54% of females under the age of 6 have never been to school and 39% of males under the age of 6 have never been to school. In the Addis Ababa region, only 16% of women are completely educated and 18% of men are completely uneducated. 42% of women and 69% of men from the age of 15-49 are literate.

Some findings about Ethiopian women were very interesting. I discovered that 48% of married women from the age of 15-49 were employed compared to 99% of men of the same standards. I also found out that as emergence of Women’s empowerment increases, that more women began to own their own land. I really became interested in women’s attitudes towards practicing safe sex, especially in situations of polygamy. 70% of women in rural areas are less likely to believe that a woman is justified in refusing to have sexual intercourse with her husband if she knows that he is sleeping with other women compared to 86% of women in urban areas.