Statistics

Another day I'll probably write about why we decided to adopt, and then why we decided to adopt from Ethiopia.  For now, though, I'd like to share some statistics about Ethiopia that I've seen on several other blogs that get me every time I read them...

• one out of every 20 children born alive die in their first month of life 
• one out of ten die before reaching their first birthday 
• one out of six die before reaching their fifth birthday

According to the Embassy of Ethiopia, the country currently has a literacy rate of about only 33 percent. With a population of 65 million, 39 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. As disease spreads rapidly, more than 1.5 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS annually.

Other Ethiopia Statistics:

•  52% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia
• 24% of the population of Ethiopia has access to safe drinking water (this includes the cities, the rural areas are - as you can imagine, much worse off)
• The median age in Ethiopia is 16.9 years
• In 2006, a mere 731 Ethiopian children were adopted by American families (do the math: of 4.6 million orphans in the country, this is far less than significant)
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)
• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school
• 88% will never attend secondary school
• Ethiopia's doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000
• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports
• The average income in Ethiopia is less than $100/yr