The Population Period of Ethiopia

Betty Abebe
Ethiopia: Population Pyramid

For my population pyramid I looked up the country Ethiopia. Ethiopia is still a developing country so the shape that there population pyramid forms is a triangular. Ethiopias fertility rate is about 5.31 child(ren) per women. This shows that Ethiopias population is both growing rapidly in size and declining in median age. When you look at the population pyramid you notice a few strange things. The country is mostly by a large based of young people. For my age coherts I will be looking at ages 0-4, 20-24, and 65-69. As you observe the population pyramid you can see from 0-4 there is a very high population of newborns and infants. But as you countine to move up the pyramid that number of chilldren in each age cohert begins to decrease. Since Ethiopia is still a developing country they don’t have the resources needed to maintain child health and give the care needed to these infants. So one of the biggest problems in Ethiopia is the number of deaths of newborn children. Since these children are so young they are vulnerable and and need resources that Ethiopia simply can’t provide. According to UNICEF babies die each year withing their first 28 days. Almost half of the new-born deaths and maternal deaths occur during the first 24 hours of the childs birth. HIV/AIDS has been a huge problem that’s been occurring for years in Africa. With 15% of the population living below the poverty line HIV/AIDS has led to a seven-year decrease in life expectancy. The disease has affected the age cohorts of 20-24 year olds in Ethiopia the most. With Ethiopia not being advance like many developed countries it’s hard to give the treatment and knowledge needed to help protect people from the disease. There is a high lack of insufficient human resources, and weak supply of management/distribution. People living in urban areas know more about the disease because they are educated. Where as people below the poverty line and not educated don’t really know anything about it. In the ages from 65-69 we see that the population pyrmaid is decreases as the ages go on at a constant rate. We neotice that there arent a lot of older people in Ethiopia do to poverty and broken up families in Ethiopia due to war, so the older people have no one to take care of the. In Ethiopia ounce you reach the age of 60 you are no longer able to paricpate in Employment Generation Schemes (food for work). Many ways for people in Ethiopia for people to get food is by participating in Govenrment income genrarting activites. Since they are old they cant participate in long distance travels, or field work to be able to obtain food. Another reason is for a low population of older people in Ethiopia is that they sometimes sacrfice themseles in order to save the lives of the other relatives and family memebers, either by refusing to eat food or simply eating last or whatever is left over. All in all, with Ethiopia still being a developing country they face many issues dealing with lack of resources and knowledge. As Ethiopia continues to urbanize and develop they will be able to better educate the people of the country about heath education, empowerment, and awareness of the many problems.