Subdivisions of Ethiopia

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Subdivisions of Ethiopia. The darkest lines indicate Regions, the lighter lines Zones, and the white lines Districts.

Ethiopia is administratively divided into four levels: regions, zones, woredas (districts) and kebele (wards).[1][2]

Current[]

Region[]

Level 1: Regions and chartered cities

The first administrative division in Ethiopia is a region, also called kilil, or alternatively regional state. The 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia established the regions based on ethno-linguistic territories.[1][3] Previously, this level was called a province, and though many of the old province and new region names are the same, the entities are not identical and the words region and province are not interchangeable. As of 2022, there were eleven regions.

Additionally there are two independently chartered cities which are on the same level as a region.

Zone[]

Level 2: Zones

Regions are subdivided into zones. The number of zones varies, but most regions have around six to twelve zones. The largest region Oromia has over 20 zones, and the two smallest regions have none. There are some cities which are set up as "special zones", such as Bahir Dar Special Zone in the Amhara Region. The earlier equivalent to a zone was called an awrajja, and many zones today are named the same as their earlier awrajja, but the terms zone and awrajja are not interchangeable.

Woreda[]

Zones are divided into woredas (districts).

Kebele[]

Woredas are divided into kebele, municipalities. This is the smallest administrative division. This is sometimes also called tabia or tabiya.

Historic provinces and awrajjas[]

See also: Provinces of Ethiopia and Awrajja
Historic: Former provinces and awrajjas (includes the Eritrea territory)

Prior to the 1995 Constitution, Ethiopia was divided into provinces, and those were further subdivided into awrajjas, then into woredas and then sub-woredas. Boundaries were sometimes redrawn and the number of provinces varied across time.[a] Awrajja were subdivisions of provinces, and were the rough equivalent of the current term zones. After the 1995 Constitution, the terms "province" and "awrajja" were dropped in favor of the terms "region" and "zone".[1]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Boundaries continue to be redrawn. For example, in 2021 a new region (South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region) was created by special referendum. It was created by taking several zones from Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region.[4][5]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Mulatu Wubneh (2017). "Ethnic Identity Politics and the Restructuring of Administrative Units in Ethiopia". International Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 11 (1 & 2): 105–138 – via JSTOR.
  2. ^ "Ethiopia Political Map and Regions | Mappr". www.mappr.co. 14 January 2019.
  3. ^ "Constitution of The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia". 8 December 1994 – via University of Bern.
  4. ^ "News Alert: Ethiopia gets eleventh state with more than 96% approval for South West referendum". Addis Standard. 9 October 2021.
  5. ^ "South West Ethiopia Peoples Region Officially Established". MSN Africa. Addis Ababa. Ethiopian News Agency (ENA). 23 November 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
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