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.
Languages of Ethiopia
According to the 2007 Ethiopian census, the largest first languages are: Oromo language speakers numbering 24,930,424 or 33.80% of the population; Amharic speakers numbering 21,634,396 or 29.30% of the population; Somali speakers numbering 4,609,274 or 6.25%; Tigrinya 4,324,476 or 5.86%; Sidamo 2,981,471 or 4.84%; Wolaytta 1,627,784 or 2.21%; Gurage speakers numbering 1,481,783 or 2.01%; and Afar speakers numbering 1,281,278 or 1.74%. Arabic, which also belongs to the Afroasiatic family, is likewise spoken in some areas of Ethiopia. Many Muslim Ethiopians are also able to speak Arabic because of their religious background. English is the most widely spoken foreign language which is also taught in many schools. Amharic is the official working language in which all federal laws are published, and it is spoken by millions of Ethiopians as a second language. In most regions it is the primary second language in the school curriculum.