Eritrea People - 2023

Population

6,274,796 (2023 est.)

Nationality

noun: Eritrean(s)

adjective: Eritrean

Ethnic groups

Tigrinya 50%, Tigre 30%, Saho 4%, Afar 4%, Kunama 4%, Bilen 3%, Hedareb/Beja 2%, Nara 2%, Rashaida 1% (2021 est.)

note: data represent Eritrea's nine recognized ethnic groups

Languages

Tigrinya (official), Arabic (official), English (official), Tigre, Kunama, Afar, other Cushitic languages

Religions

Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, Sunni Muslim

Demographic profile

Eritrea is a persistently poor country that has made progress in some socioeconomic categories but not in others. Education and human capital formation are national priorities for facilitating economic development and eradicating poverty. To this end, Eritrea has made great strides in improving adult literacy – doubling the literacy rate over the last 20 years – in large part because of its successful adult education programs. The overall literacy rate was estimated to be more than 75% in 2018; more work needs to be done to raise female literacy and school attendance among nomadic and rural communities. Subsistence farming fails to meet the needs of Eritrea’s growing population because of repeated droughts, dwindling arable land, overgrazing, soil erosion, and a shortage of farmers due to conscription and displacement. The government’s emphasis on spending on defense over agriculture and its lack of foreign exchange to import food also contribute to food insecurity.

Eritrea has been a leading refugee source country since at least the 1960s, when its 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia began. Since gaining independence in 1993, Eritreans have continued migrating to Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Egypt, or Israel because of a lack of basic human rights or political freedom, educational and job opportunities, or to seek asylum because of militarization. Eritrea’s large diaspora has been a source of vital remittances, funding its war for independence and providing 30% of the country’s GDP annually since it became independent.

In the last few years, Eritreans have increasingly been trafficked and held hostage by Bedouins in the Sinai Desert, where they are victims of organ harvesting, rape, extortion, and torture. Some Eritrean trafficking victims are kidnapped after being smuggled to Sudan or Ethiopia, while others are kidnapped from within or around refugee camps or crossing Eritrea’s borders. Eritreans composed approximately 90% of the conservatively estimated 25,000-30,000 victims of Sinai trafficking from 2009-2013, according to a 2013 consultancy firm report.

Age structure

0-14 years: 36.27% (male 1,145,134/female 1,130,829)

15-64 years: 59.73% (male 1,842,953/female 1,904,677)

65 years and over: 4% (2023 est.) (male 100,158/female 151,045)

Dependency ratios

total dependency ratio: 77.9

youth dependency ratio: 70.8

elderly dependency ratio: 7.1

potential support ratio: 14 (2021 est.)

Median age

total: 20.3 years

male: 19.7 years

female: 20.8 years (2020 est.)

Population growth rate

1.08% (2023 est.)

Birth rate

26.72 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)

Death rate

6.6 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)

Net migration rate

-9.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)

Population distribution

density is highest in the center of the country in and around the cities of Asmara (capital) and Keren; smaller settlements exist in the north and south as shown in this population distribution map

Urbanization

urban population: 43.3% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 3.67% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Major urban areas - population

1.073 million ASMARA (capital) (2023)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female

0-14 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female

total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2023 est.)

Mother's mean age at first birth

21.3 years (2010 est.)

note: data represents median age at first birth among women 25-29

Maternal mortality ratio

322 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 40.63 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 47.45 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 33.62 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 67.19 years

male: 64.56 years

female: 69.89 years (2023 est.)

Total fertility rate

3.5 children born/woman (2023 est.)

Gross reproduction rate

1.73 (2023 est.)

Contraceptive prevalence rate

N/A

Drinking water source

improved: urban: 73.2% of population

rural: 53.3% of population

total: 57.8% of population

unimproved: urban: 26.8% of population

rural: 46.7% of population

total: 42.2% of population (2015 est.)

Current health expenditure

4.1% of GDP (2020)

Physicians density

0.08 physicians/1,000 population (2020)

Hospital bed density

0.7 beds/1,000 population (2011)

Sanitation facility access

improved: urban: 44.5% of population

rural: 7.3% of population

total: 15.7% of population

unimproved: urban: 55.5% of population

rural: 92.7% of population

total: 84.3% of population (2017 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: high (2023)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever

note: on 22 March 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Eritrea is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine

Obesity - adult prevalence rate

5% (2016)

Alcohol consumption per capita

total: 0.93 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

beer: 0.42 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

wine: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

spirits: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

other alcohols: 0.51 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

Tobacco use

total: 7.5% (2020 est.)

male: 14.7% (2020 est.)

female: 0.2% (2020 est.)

Children under the age of 5 years underweight

N/A

Currently married women (ages 15-49)

52.3% (2023 est.)

Education expenditures

N/A

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 76.6%

male: 84.4%

female: 68.9% (2018)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 8 years

male: 8 years

female: 7 years (2015)

Youth unemployment rate (ages 15-24)

total: 14.6%

male: 13.1%

female: 16.4% (2021 est.)