Ethiopia
Ethiopia's population has grown from 33.5 million in 1983 to 87.9 million in 2014. The population was only about 9 million in the 19th century. The 2007 Population and Housing Census results show that the population of Ethiopia grew at an average annual rate of 2.6% between 1994 and 2007, down from 2.8% during the period 1983–1994. Currently, the population growth rate is among the top ten countries in the world. The population is forecast to grow to over 210 million by 2060, which would be an increase from 2011 estimates by a factor of about 2.5.
Polyethnicity
Ethiopia is a polyethnic nation consisting of 80 different ethnic groups and 84 indigenous languages. Due to the diverse population and rural areas throughout the nation, it was nearly impossible to create a strong centralized state; though it was eventually accomplished through political evolution. Prior to 1974, nationalism was only discussed within radical student groups, but by the late 20th century the issue had come to the forefront of political debate. Ethiopia was forced to modernize their political system to properly handle the nationalism debates. The Derg military government took control with a Marxist–Leninist ideology, urging self-determination and rejecting compromise over any nationality issues. In the 1980s, Ethiopia suffered a series of famines and after the USSR broke apart, they lost their aid from the Soviet Union and the Derg government collapsed. Eventually Ethiopia restabilized and adopted a modern political system that models a federal parliamentary republic. It was still impossible to create a central government holding all power, so the government was torn. The central federal government now presides over ethnically-based regional states and each ethnic state is granted the right to establish their own government and democracy.