Religion in Ethiopia consists of a number of faiths. Among these mainlyAbrahamic religions, the most numerous isChristianity (Ethiopian Orthodoxy,P'ent'ay,Roman Catholic) whose adherents collectively form 67.3% of the population, followed byIslam, adhered to by 31.3%.[1] There is also a longstanding but smallEthiopian Jewish community. Some adherents of theBaháʼí Faith likewise exist in a number of urban and rural areas. Additionally, there is also a substantial population of the adherents oftraditional faiths.
According to the national census conducted in 2007, over 32 million people or 43.5% were reported to beEthiopian Orthodox Christians, over 25 million or 33.9% were reported to beMuslim, 13.7 million, or 18.6%, wereP'ent'ay Christians, and just under two million or 2.6% adhered to traditional beliefs.[2] Neither in the 2007 census, nor in the 1994 census, were responses reported in further detail: for example, those who identified themselves as Hindus, Jewish, Baháʼí, agnostics or atheists were counted as "Other".
TheKingdom of Aksum in present-dayEthiopia andEritrea was one of the first Christian countries in the world, having officially adoptedChristianity as the state religion in the 4th century.[3]
In general, most of theChristians (largely members of thenon-ChalcedonianEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church) live in the highlands, whileMuslims and adherents of traditional African religions tend to inhabit more lowland regions in the east and south of the country.[citation needed] The numerous indigenousAfrican religions in Ethiopia operate mainly in the far southwest and western borderlands.[citation needed]
Ethiopia has close historical ties to all three of the world's majorAbrahamic religions. Christians form the majority of the population.[1] Islam is the second most followed religion, with 31.3% of the population being adherents. 2.6% of the population (mainly in the far south and southwest) follow traditional religions; other religions (theBaháʼí Faith,Judaism, etc.) make up the remaining 0.6%.[2] Ethiopia is the site of the firsthijra in Islamic history and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa atNegash. Until the 1980s, a substantial population ofEthiopian Jews resided in Ethiopia. The country is also the spiritual homeland of theRastafari religious movement.[citation needed]
Ethiopia is one of the oldest Christian states in the world. TheEthiopian Orthodox Church is anOriental Orthodox Church, which is the largest Christian denomination in Ethiopia. It was part of theCoptic Orthodox Church until 1959, and is the only pre-colonial Orthodox church inSub-Saharan Africa. The apostleSt. Matthew is said to have died in Ethiopia.[4] Christianity in Ethiopia dates back to the Aksumite Kingdom during King Ezana's rein.[5]
In 2016, the government stated that 67% of the country is Christian (44% of the population belonging to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church).[6]
According to the government's 1994 census (which theCIA World Factbook follows), 61.6% of the Ethiopian population was Christian: 50.6% of the total wereEthiopian Orthodox, 10.1% were variousProtestant denominations (such as and theLutheranEthiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus), andRoman Catholics constituted 0.9% of the population).[7]
Orthodox Ethiopian Christians are predominant in theTigray (95.6%) andAmhara (82.5%), while the majority of Protestants live in theSouthern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region or SNNPR (55.5% of the inhabitants) and theOromia Region (4.8 million or 17.7%).[2] According to the government's most recent census from 2007, Christians constitute 62.8% of the total population, with the largest group beingEthiopian Orthodox Christians at 43.5%, followed byProtestants 18.6% andCatholics at 0.7%.[2] A 2015 study estimates some 400,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.[8]
TheKingdom of Aksum was one of the first nations to officially acceptChristianity, when St.Frumentius ofTyre, called Fremnatos or Abba Selama ("Father of Peace") in Ethiopia, converted KingEzana during the 4th centuryAD.[9][10] Many believe that the Gospel had entered Ethiopia even earlier, with the royal official described as being baptised byPhilip the Evangelist in chapter eight of theActs of the Apostles (Acts 8:26–39).[11] Orthodox Christianity has a long history in Ethiopia dating back to the 1st century, and is dominant in northern and central Ethiopia. Both Orthodox and Protestant Christianity have large representations in southern and western Ethiopia. A small ancient group ofJews, theBeta Israel, live in northwestern Ethiopia, though most emigrated toIsrael in the last decades of the 20th century as part of the rescue missions undertaken by the Israeli government,Operation Moses andOperation Solomon.[12] Some Israeli and Jewish scholars consider these Ethiopian Jews as a historicalLost Tribe of Israel. Today, theEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, part ofOriental Orthodoxy, is by far the largest denomination, though a number ofProtestants churches have recently gained ground. Since the 18th century there has existed a relatively small (uniate)Ethiopian Catholic Church infull communion withRome, with adherents making up less than 1% of the total population.[2]
The name "Ethiopia" (HebrewKush) is mentioned in the Bible numerous times (thirty-seven times in theKing James version). Abyssinia is also mentioned in theQur'an andHadith. While many Ethiopians claim that the Bible references of Kush apply to their own ancient civilization, pointing out that theGihon river, a name for theNile, is said to flow through the land, some scholars believe that the use of the term referred to theKingdom of Kush in particular, or Africa outside of Egypt in general. The modern nameEthiopia is from theGreek termAethiopia used to translateKush, and was applied to all of Sub-Saharan Africa, including what is nowSudan, but with a few classical geographers giving more detailed descriptions of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea (e.g.Adulis) as well.[citation needed]
Islam in Ethiopia dates back to the founding of the religion; in 615, when a group of Muslims were counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution inMecca andtravel to Ethiopia via modern-day Eritrea, which was ruled byAshama ibn Abjar, a pious Christian king.Bilal ibn Ribah, the firstMuezzin, the person chosen to call the faithful to prayer, and one of the foremost companions of Muhammad, was born in Mecca to an Abyssinian mother. Moreover, the largest portion ofnon-Arab companions of Muhammad belonged to Ethiopian ethnic groups.[citation needed]
According to the most recent 2007CSA governmental data, Muslims are 33.9% of the population,[2] up from 32.8% in 1994 (according to the census data of that year).[7][13]Before the publication of the 2007 census results, however, the U.S. State Department estimated that "approximately 31% of the population is Sunni Muslim."[6] Roughly 68% of Ethiopian Muslims are Sunni, whilst 23% arenon-denominational Muslims, whilst another 2% adhere to other sects such asShia,Quranist,Ibadi etc.[14] and some belonging to variousSufi orders. Islam first arrived in Ethiopia in 614 with theFirst Migration to Abyssinia.Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city, is home to about 443,821 Muslims or 16.2%.[15] While Muslims can be found in almost every community, Islam is most prevalent in theSomali (98.4%),Afar (95.3%) andOromia (47.5%) Regions.[2] Haile Selassie's government reportedly concealed the actual figures of the Muslim population in order to present Ethiopia as a Christian nation to the outside world.[16][17] The writers ofEthiopia: a country study claimed that Islam made up 50% of the total population in 1991 based on the 1984 census commissioned by theDerg regime.[17] Some web columnist even say the Muslim population are the majority and disagree with the current Ethiopian governments claims.[18]
TheBeta Israel, also known as theFalashas (though this term is considered derogatory), are a long-isolated group ofAfrican Jews who have lived in Ethiopia since antiquity. Their existence was not widely known to the outside world for many years, and they likewise were not aware of other Jewish groups outside of their own community.[19] They became known tothe West during the 19th and 20th centuries, and were accepted as Jews by theIsraeli government in 1975. After this,Operation Moses andOperation Solomon, conducted in 1984 and 1991, respectively, airlifted the vast majority of the Ethiopian Jewish population to Israel, where there is currently a population of 150,000 Beta Israel. A small Jewish community still exists in Ethiopia, although it is mostly composed ofFalash Mura, Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity in the past, and as such have not been recognized as Jews by the State of Israel, but have returned to Judaism (the Falash Mura now number some 22,000).
TheBaháʼí Faith in Ethiopia begins after`Abdu'l-Bahá wrote letters encouraging taking the religion to Africa in 1916.[20] Mr. Sabri Elais, then a 27-year-old Bahá'í from Alexandria, Egypt, introduced the Baháʼí Faith to Ethiopia in 1933.[21] A year later, in November 1934, the first BaháʼíLocal Spiritual Assembly in the country was formed inAddis Ababa.[22] In 1962, Ethiopia Baháʼís elected aNational Spiritual Assembly.[23] By 1963, there were seven localities with smaller groups of Baháʼís in the country.[24] TheAssociation of Religion Data Archives estimated that there were around 23,000 Baháʼí adherents in 2010.[25] The Ethiopian community celebrated its diamond jubile in January 2009.[26] As of 2016[update] the largest Baháʼí community is in Addis Ababa.[27]A number of towns (such as Awassa, Nazareth, Mekele, Succano and Shashemenie) and rural areas in Oromia and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) have active and growing Baháʼí communities.[citation needed]
An estimated 2.6% of Ethiopia's population adheres to varioustraditional faiths, according to the 2007 census (down from 4.6% in the 1994 census data). The largest numbers of practitioners of traditional religions are in the SNNPR (about 993,000 people) and Oromia (895,000).[2]
Ethiopia is the spiritual homeland of theRastafari movement, whose adherents believe Ethiopia isZion. The Rastafari view EmperorHaile Selassie asJesus, the human incarnation of God. The Emperor himself was the defender of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, that also has a concept of Zion,although it represents a unique and complex concept, referring figuratively to St.Mary, but also to Ethiopia as a bastion of Christianity surrounded by Muslims and other religions, much likeMount Zion in the Bible.[citation needed] It is also used to refer toAxum, the ancient capital and religious centre of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, or to its primary church, calledChurch of Our Lady Mary of Zion.[28][full citation needed]
In 2023, the country was scored 1 out of 4 for religious freedom. Local conflicts have included violence along religious lines.[29]
In the same year, it was ranked as the 39th worst country in the world to be a Christian.[30]
Freedom of religion is provided by theconstitution of 1995, and freedom of worship had also been guaranteed by the 1930 and 1955 Constitutions of Ethiopia, although in certain localities this principle is not always respected in practice. There is no state religion, and it is forbidden to form political parties based upon religion; all religious groups are required to register with the government, and renew their registration once every three years. It is a crime in Ethiopia to incite one religion against another.Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church published works by an unknown author written in Ge'ez and translated to Amharic in 1986 which claimedHabesha should refrain from sexual intercourse withOromo, Muslims,Shanqella,Falasha and animals because it was an abomination.[31] Discrimination against Muslims has been rampant since the creation of modern Ethiopia, Muslims were marginalized in the Haile Selassie era which led to the1974 Ethiopian Muslim protests.[32] Haile Selassie actually came to power during the rise of opposition to Muslims in government positions.[33] U.S ambassadorDavid H. Shinn stated in 2005 that the Ethiopian leadership continued to be largely Christian.[34] Tension between Christian and Muslim Oromo were witnessed during the2005 Ethiopian general election, when MuslimArsi Oromo denounced theShewa Oromo for participating in political nepotism.[35] There is some tension between members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Protestant Christians, as well as between the Ethiopian Orthodox and Muslims in general. According to theBarnabas Fund, 55 churches were torched in March 2011 in theJimma Zone by Muslims after a dispute. In December 2019 several mosques and Muslim owned businesses were attacked in the Christian dominatedAmhara Region.[36]
Human rights groups have regularly accused the government of arresting activists, journalists and bloggers to stamp out dissent among some religious communities. Lengthy prison terms were handed to 17 Muslim activists on 3 August 2015 ranging from 7 to 22 years. They were charged with trying to create an Islamic state in the majority Christian country. All the defendants denied the charges and claimed that they were merely protesting in defence of their rights.[37][38][39]
In theHadith, Prophet Mohammed explicitly prohibited jihad against theAbyssinians as long as they were not hostile to Muslims.[40] This is because Abyssinia's (present-day Ethiopia) Aksumite monarch embraced a group of Muslims embarking on the first Hijrah from Arabia, fleeing persecution from their homeland.[41] The founder ofSolomonic dynasty,Yekuno Amlak was heavily assisted by MuslimSultanate of Showa in his struggle against theZagwe dynasty.[42] Yekuno Amlak paid back this favor when the Sultan of Shewa appealed to him to put down an insurrection in Showa.[43]
These friendly and collaborative relations between Muslim and Christian states would soon deteriorate in the following centuries. In the early fourteenth century EmperorAmda Seyon launched a crusade against the neighboring Muslim state ofIfat Sultanate, several mosques were demolished.[44] In the early fifteenth century EmperorZara Yaqob invaded the Muslim state ofHadiya Sultanate and married the captured Hadiya princessEleni which was condemned by Muslims.[45] In the late fifteenth centuryAdal Sultanate invaded Abyssinia led by ImamMahfuz, his defeat brought about the early 16th centuryJihad of theAdaleseImamAhmed Gran against Ethiopia, where several churches were demolished.[46] In the nineteenth century during the reign of emperorsTewodros II,Yohannes IV andMenelik II, numerous Muslims were forced to convert to Christianity or displaced from their homelands. Muslims were furthermore treated as second class citizens and restrictions were put in place on how they could practice their religion.[47]
| Year | Christians | Muslims | Traditional faiths | Other | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Ethiopian Orthodox | Protestants | Catholics | ||||
| 1994 | 61.6% | 50.6% | 10.1% | 0.9% | 32.8% | 4.6% | 1.0% |
| 2007 | 62.8% | 43.5% | 18.6% | 0.7% | 33.9% | 2.6% | 0.7% |
| Growth | 1.2% | −7.1% | 8.5% | −0.2% | 1.1% | −2.0% | −0.3% |
| Year | Christians | Muslims | Traditional faiths | Other | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Ethiopian Orthodox | Protestants | Catholics | ||||
| 1994 | 32,689,482 | 26,844,932 | 5,366,360 | 478,190 | 17,406,087 | 2,444,085 | 531,323 |
| 2007 | 46,420,822 | 32,154,550 | 13,748,842 | 517,430 | 25,058,373 | 1,921,881 | 517,430 |
| Growth | 13,731,340 | 5,309,618 | 8,382,482 | 39,240 | 7,652,286 | -522,204 | -13,893 |
| 1994 | 2007 | 1994 | 2007 | 1994 | 2007 | 1994 | 2007 | 1994 | 2007 | 1994 | 2007 | 1994 | 2007 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Christians | Ethiopian Orthodox | Protestants | Catholics | Muslims | Traditional faiths | Other | |||||||
| Addis Ababa | 86.65% | 83.0% | 82.0% | 74.7% | 3.9% | 7.8% | 0.8% | 0.5% | 12.7% | 16.2% | 0.8% | |||
 Afar | 4.4% | 4.7% | 3.9% | 3.9% | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 95.6% | 95.3% | ||||
 Amhara | 81.6% | 82.7% | 81.5% | 82.5% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 18.1% | 17.2% | 0.1% | |||||
 Benishangul-Gumuz | 40.6% | 46.5% | 34.8% | 33.0% | 5.8% | 13.5% | 44.1% | 45.4% | 13.1% | 7.1% | ||||
| Dire Dawa | 36.7% | 28.8% | 34.5% | 25.7% | 1.5% | 2.8% | 0.7% | 0.4% | 63.2% | 70.9% | 0.1% | 0.3% | ||
 Gambela | 71.35% | 90.2% | 24.1% | 16.8% | 44.0% | 70.0% | 3.2% | 3.4% | 5.15% | 4.9% | 10.3% | 3.8% | 1.1% | |
 Harari | 39.49% | 30.8% | 38.1% | 27.1% | 0.9% | 3.4% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 60.3% | 69.0% | 0.2% | |||
 Oromia | 49.9% | 48.2% | 41.3% | 30.5% | 8.6% | 17.7% | 44.3% | 47.5% | 4.2% | 3.3% | 1.1% | |||
.svg) Somali | 0.9% | 0.5% | 0.9% | 0.6% | 98.7% | 98.4% | 0.3% | 1.0% | ||||||
 SNNPR | 65.4% | 77.8% | 27.6% | 19.9% | 34.8% | 55.5% | 3.0% | 2.4% | 16.7% | 14.1% | 15.4% | 6.6% | 1.5% | |
 Tigray | 95.9% | 96.1% | 95.5% | 95.6% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 4.1% | 4.0% | |||||
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromThe World Factbook (2025 ed.).CIA. (Archived 2006 edition.)