Ethiopia’s population projected to reach 94 mln after ten years

This year the population is estimated at 85.9 million, with the male and female ratios remaining proportional.
Samia Zekaria, director general of CSA, and Birattu Yigezu, her deputy, told journalists on Friday that although the projection has three variant scenarios, Ethiopia considers the medium status as the final projection for reference. Based on the “high variant” estimation (where death and birth rates, migration and urbanization are estimated to change in high variations), the total number people in Ethiopia will amass to 95.2 million, with the low variant estimating a population of 92.3 million.
According to the 2007 census the population was 73.8 million, so an increase of  20 million people is predicted.
By the end of 2017, the urban population of the country is estimated to be 19.2 million, accounting for 20 percent of the entire nation. According to Samia, the urbanization process is expected to increase in regional cities and towns, rather than in the capital Addis Ababa. However, the level of life expectancy is not expected to change significantly in the coming ten years. “Studies have indicated that very rapid increase in life expectation is not possible,” says the population projection report. However, the inter-censal survey (a census conducted between previous and future censuses) carried out last year, puts the life expectancy for males at 58 and 61 for females.
In related news, 117,000 people have been found stateless in the country, as they are located between the boundaries of the Afar, Oromia and Somali regional states, leading the CSA to conduct special reports for these areas.
According to Samia, the highly disputed census results of the Amhara Regional State population was the result of an over-estimation of the growth rate projection. This has been corrected by the inter-censal survey and the current population is 19.6 million, projected to reach 21.2 million by 2017.
The population projections, according to the report, have been made using the component method, where births, deaths, migration and urbanization are projected separately for each of the regions, then summed up to represent the population figure for the entire country.