Ethiopia’s
population is projected to hit 90 million this year, the country’s state
Central Statistical Agency (CSA) said yesterday.
The
announcement was made in a press conference by CSA Acting Deputy Director
General of Population and Vital Statistics Asalifew Aberra in Addis Ababa on
Friday.
In
July 2014, the population of Ethiopia stood at around 88 million, making the
country the second most populous in Africa.
According
to Aberra, the Ethiopian population size comes second only to Nigeria which has
a population of over 164 million.
“There
is no way Ethiopia’s population can overtake that of Nigeria,” Aberra said,
refuting a report by a local newspaper that claimed that Ethiopia’s population
would overtake that of Nigeria.
Ethiopia
has been implementing a population policy over the past couple of decades
through which family planning was expanded to most of the rural areas in the
country, he said.
The
average fertility rate that hit 7.7 children per mother a few decades ago has
now come down to 4.1 children, he said.
“This
shows that whereas Ethiopia’s population will continue to grow in the future,
the rate of growth would come to be less and less,” he added.
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