Ethnic Composition of Debre Zeit Community:
In the 1950s and 1960s, ethnicity was not considered as one identifying or characterization criteria of students. Ethnic identification became a big issue since 1991 after the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led EPRDF government divided the country along Ethnic lines, and hence, ethnicity became pronounced in every aspect of life, including schools.
To look back, an attempt was made understand the ethnic composition of Debre Zeit. However, the ethnic composition of Debre Zeit was not reported in the 2007 census report. We suspect that this could be due to the small size of the population, which was less than 100,000, and is considered prone to small number error. Hence, used Adama Special Zone as a proxy, since the two urban centers are similar in the composition of their community.
When we look at the overall ethnic composition of Adama Special Zone, five ethnics groups account for 86.3 percent of the total population. The Oromo ethnic group leads with 39 percent closely followed by the Amhara with 34.5 percent. the other three ethnic groups account for 12.8 Percent, Gurage with 12 percent; Hadiya with 0.4 percent, and Kembata with 0.4 percent.
| % Share of the five Ethnic groups | |||||||||
| URBAN+RURAL | URBAN | RURAL | |||||||
| Both sex | Male | Female | Both sex | Male | Female | Both sex | Male | Female | |
| ADAMA SPECIAL ZONE (proxy for Bishoftu) | |||||||||
| Amhara | 34.5% | 32.2% | 36.8% | 34.5% | 32.2% | 36.8% | – | – | – |
| Guragie | 12.0% | 12.4% | 11.5% | 12.0% | 12.4% | 11.5% | – | – | – |
| Hadiya | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.3% | – | – | – |
| Kembata | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% | – | – | – |
| Oromo | 39.0% | 39.9% | 38.1% | 39.0% | 39.9% | 38.1% | – | – | – |
| % Representation of the five | 86.3% | 85.4% | 87.2% | 86.3% | 85.4% | 87.2% | |||
| EAST SHEWA ZONE | |||||||||
| Amhara | 15.4% | 15.0% | 15.8% | 29.7% | 28.2% | 31.1% | 10.6% | 10.7% | 10.5% |
| Guragie | 3.8% | 3.7% | 3.9% | 9.3% | 9.3% | 9.3% | 2.0% | 1.9% | 2.1% |
| Hadiya | 1.0% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 1.0% | 0.9% | 1.1% | 0.8% |
| Kembata | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1.5% | 1.8% | 1.2% |
| Oromo | 74.1% | 73.9% | 74.3% | 48.8% | 49.1% | 48.5% | 82.5% | 81.8% | 83.2% |
| % Representation of the five | 95.7% | 95.4% | 96.1% | 90.4% | 89.6% | 91.2% | |||
| OROMIA REGION | |||||||||
| Amhara | 7.2% | 7.2% | 7.2% | 19.7% | 18.4% | 20.9% | 5.5% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| Guragie | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 4.9% | 5.1% | 4.8% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Hadiya | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Kembata | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Oromo | 87.8% | 87.7% | 87.9% | 66.6% | 67.5% | 65.7% | 90.8% | 90.6% | 91.0% |
| % Representation of the five | 96.3% | 96.2% | 96.4% | 92.0% | 91.8% | 92.1% | 96.9% | 96.9% | 96.9% |
One key factor for the variation in Ethnic composition of the community is the urban and rural characteristics of the community. For instance, the Amhara ethnic group represents slightly over a third (34.5%) of Adama Special Zone; close to a third (29.7%) of the East Shewa urban Zone, and close to a fifth (19.7) of the Oromia Region urban area. On the other hand, in rural areas, the representation the Amhara groups drops to 15.4 percent in East Shewa zone and to only 7.2 percent in the Oromia region.
Besides the Oromo, the two Ethnic groups that were highly represented in the urban community are the Amhara and the Gurage (usually referred as urbanized ethnic group).
For additional analysis the following table of Population by Urban-Rural Residence, Sex, and Major Ethnic Group: 2007 is provided.
| Population by Urban-Rural Residence, Sex, and Major Ethnic Group: 2007 | |||||||||
| Ethnic Group | URBAN+RURAL | Urban | Rural | ||||||
| Both Sexes | Male | Female | Both Sexes | Male | Female | Both Sexes | Male | Female | |
| ADAMA SPECIAL ZONE )Close to Bishoftu) | |||||||||
| All Groups | 220212 | 108872 | 111340 | 220212 | 108872 | 111340 | – | – | – |
| Amhara | 76043 | 35031 | 41012 | 76043 | 35031 | 41012 | – | – | – |
| Guragie | 26375 | 13516 | 12859 | 26375 | 13516 | 12859 | – | – | – |
| Hadiya | 773 | 414 | 359 | 773 | 414 | 359 | – | – | – |
| Kembata | 929 | 505 | 424 | 929 | 505 | 424 | – | – | – |
| Oromo | 85915 | 43457 | 42458 | 85915 | 43457 | 42458 | – | – | – |
| Silte | 11058 | 6250 | 4808 | 11058 | 6250 | 4808 | – | – | – |
| Somalie | 775 | 368 | 407 | 775 | 368 | 407 | – | – | – |
| Tigrie | 7491 | 3635 | 3856 | 7491 | 3635 | 3856 | – | – | – |
| Welaita | 1994 | 1147 | 847 | 1994 | 1147 | 847 | – | – | – |
| Ethiopian National | 145 | 81 | 64 | 145 | 81 | 64 | – | – | – |
| From different Parents | 925 | 459 | 466 | 925 | 459 | 466 | – | – | – |
| EAST SHEWA ZONE | |||||||||
| All Groups | 1356342 | 696350 | 659992 | 340225 | 169503 | 170722 | 1016117 | 526847 | 489270 |
| Amhara | 208760 | 104363 | 104397 | 100910 | 47764 | 53146 | 107850 | 56599 | 51251 |
| Guragie | 51839 | 25912 | 25927 | 31707 | 15841 | 15866 | 20132 | 10071 | 10061 |
| Hadiya | 13707 | 7976 | 5731 | 4099 | 2402 | 1697 | 9608 | 5574 | 4034 |
| Kembata | 19864 | 11969 | 7895 | 4792 | 2655 | 2137 | 15072 | 9314 | 5758 |
| Oromo | 1004483 | 514419 | 490064 | 166113 | 83294 | 82819 | 838370 | 431125 | 407245 |
| Silte | 8367 | 4412 | 3955 | 5865 | 3145 | 2720 | 2502 | 1267 | 1235 |
| Somalie | 993 | 519 | 474 | 627 | 316 | 311 | 366 | 203 | 163 |
| Tigrie | 7712 | 3864 | 3848 | 6751 | 3385 | 3366 | 961 | 479 | 482 |
| Welaita | 19572 | 11814 | 7758 | 9433 | 5514 | 3919 | 10139 | 6300 | 3839 |
| Ethiopian National | 3165 | 1668 | 1497 | 1007 | 533 | 474 | 2158 | 1135 | 1023 |
| From different Parents | 1803 | 866 | 937 | 1219 | 581 | 638 | 584 | 285 | 299 |
| OROMIA REGION | |||||||||
| All Groups | 26993933 | 13595006 | 13398927 | 3317460 | 1679153 | 1638307 | 23676473 | 11915853 | 11760620 |
| Amhara | 1943578 | 979618 | 963960 | 652254 | 309484 | 342770 | 1291324 | 670134 | 621190 |
| Guragie | 248100 | 127163 | 120937 | 164104 | 84971 | 79133 | 83996 | 42192 | 41804 |
| Gedeo | 242529 | 120410 | 122119 | 10491 | 5477 | 5014 | 232038 | 114933 | 117105 |
| Hadiya | 52673 | 27238 | 25435 | 10989 | 5942 | 5047 | 41684 | 21296 | 20388 |
| Kembata | 41618 | 23415 | 18203 | 14780 | 7992 | 6788 | 26838 | 15423 | 11415 |
| Oromo | 23708767 | 11927093 | 11781674 | 2209741 | 1133841 | 1075900 | 21499026 | 10793252 | 10705774 |
| Silte | 49268 | 27232 | 22036 | 39194 | 21972 | 17222 | 10074 | 5260 | 4814 |
| Somalie | 89533 | 46225 | 43308 | 24340 | 12453 | 11887 | 65193 | 33772 | 31421 |
| Tigrie | 61263 | 31240 | 30023 | 33511 | 16599 | 16912 | 27752 | 14641 | 13111 |
| Welaita | 63021 | 34022 | 28999 | 38888 | 19786 | 19102 | 24133 | 14236 | 9897 |
| Ethiopian National | 17977 | 9307 | 8670 | 1482 | 772 | 710 | 16495 | 8535 | 7960 |
| From different Parents | 11204 | 5477 | 5727 | 6022 | 2785 | 3237 | 5182 | 2692 | 2490 |