Eritrea is an East African country located on the Red Sea, with a population of around 6.5 million people. The main ethnic group is Tigrinya, making up around 50% of the population. Other ethnic groups include Afar, Saho, and Tigre. The majority of Eritreans are Christian, with other religions such as Islam and traditional beliefs making up much of the remaining population. Additionally, there is also a small Jewish minority living in Eritrea as well. The literacy rate in Eritrea is close to 67%, and the average life expectancy is 62 years. Check hyperrestaurant to learn more about Eritrea in 2009.
Social conditions
Eritrea’s economy has been ravaged after decades of war in the country. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of ERI and acronym for Eritrea. A large part of the population is dependent on food aid, while the government limits the flow of aid. In 2006, 14 percent of children were underweight at birth, compared with 44 percent in the early 1990s. Infant mortality has dropped from 88 percent in 1990 to 46 per cent in 2017 and maternal mortality from 1,400 to 450 per 100,000 births. The government uses just over 3.7 percent of GDP for health care (2005). In 2004, there were approximately 4.5 doctors per 100,000 residents. In 2006, 60 percent of the population had access to clean water and 5 percent to satisfactory wastewater. Check to see Eritrea population.
A major problem after the war against Ethiopia in 1998–2000 has been the demobilization of the approximately 250,000 soldiers. In 2005, there were still 200,000 soldiers in the army. The war devastated large parts of agriculture and industry, causing many to lose their livelihoods. Unemployment is high, while there is a shortage of trained staff. The activities of the unions are very limited. Military, police and government officials are not allowed to organize. The only national organization, the National Confederation of Eritrean Workers (NCEW), is closely linked to the state-carrying party PFDJ.
The road network consisted of large automobile arteries, modern roads, mostly asphalted, with fixed works of art, often of considerable grandeur (overall, almost 1000 km. Of tarred roads). The major centers of central-southern Eritrea have been connected by this road network, gravitating on one side to the port of Massawa which has seen its equipment greatly enhanced (docks, 900 m. Of quays, fixed and modern mobile systems) and by the the other on that of Assab (new 180 m deep breakwater pier, 240 m of quays).
Traffic in the port of Massawa had gradually increased, so as to record in 1938 a movement of over 2,000 ships with almost 200,000 passengers and over 900,000 t. of goods.
This traffic was then increased: on the one hand, due to the obvious greater need for imports occurring in the first period of establishment of the Italian administration in Ethiopia and for the program of public works and initial industrial activity; and, on the other hand, not without artifice, because the autarchy policy then pursued to its maximum consequences in Italy required traffic to pass through Eritrean ports, and therefore along the roads in a north-south direction, even for those goods that due to their nature or their destination they could more economically have passed through the (French) port of Djibouti, a natural outlet to the sea in central and southern Ethiopia. In addition to this new increase in Ethiopian traffic, there was a significant increase in trade relations with the finite Arabian peninsula for Eritrea,
The Italian population of Eritrea reached 78,000 residents in 1939, largely devoted to trade or the transport industry. Agricultural initiatives, however, also found new impetus in this improved economic situation: both the minor crops, aimed at supplying the major city centers, and the daring agricultural-industrial enterprise of Tessenei for the production of cotton, in an irrigated area. by building a dam on the Gasc river, a beautiful work due to the governor Iacopo Gasparini.
Agriculture has seen the flourishing of new plantations or the improvement of existing ones, both on the plateau (areas of Asmara, Cheren, etc.), and in the western lowland (Tessenei: 10,000 q. Of dura and 6,000 q. Of cotton in 1939).
The industries have continued to develop considerably, among which very flourishing, as well as the hotel industries, those of transport, mechanics, food, small artisan industries, and above all those characteristics: that is the mine (potassium salts of Dallól), the salt of Massawa (100,000 tons per year) and Assab (90,000 tons per year), that of peach (mother of pearl, pearls, sharks), the agricultural ones.