Population
According to
Countryaah, Eritrea has an average population density of 26 residents
per km2; density is highest in the highland area
of central Eritrea. In 2019, 40 percent lived in one of
the country's cities, of which the capital Asmera (712,000
residents in 2012) is the completely dominant. The civil war
and famine have meant that today there are estimated to be
about 1 million Eritrean refugees outside the country. Of
these, half are estimated to be in neighboring Sudan.
The population is divided into five major ethnic groups
and a number of smaller peoples. More than half of the
population belongs to Tigrinya, who are Orthodox Christians
and dominate the country politically and economically; most
live in the central parts of the country. There is also a
large tigrinadia spore outside of Eritrea. In the Highlands
there is a small group of Tigrinian-speaking Muslims called
Jeberti; most of them are traders. In the southern parts of
Eritrea are the camel-eating aphids (4 percent), who speak a
Cushitic language and are Muslims. Also saho (4 percent) in
western Eritrea are Muslims and livestock but with a certain
element of resident agriculture. Both Afar and Saho have a
traditional socio-political system based on paternal law
principles.
The tiger population (30 percent) in the far north-west
is mainly agricultural. Among them, Christianity dominates,
but Islam also exists. Along the border with Sudan in the
north-west, the livestock-eating cattle tribes (210,000)
also live. They are Muslims, and among them are both Tiger
and Cushitic speakers. Rashaida (76,000), who lives in the
vicinity of Beja people, is an Arabic-speaking group that
moved in from the Arabian Peninsula in 1846. They are Sunni
Muslims, live as camel-breeding nomads and are considered to
be descended from Bedouins.
Among the smaller groups in Eritrea can also be mentioned
the plow-farming bilin (96,000). They inhabit the central
parts of the country and are now Muslims after previously
practicing Ethiopian-Orthodox Christianity. In the border
regions towards Ethiopia are found the nilotic kunama
(100,000). Along the border with Sudan, 26,000 Nara live,
which are farmers and Muslims. Their language belongs to the
Cushitic languages.
Language
The Eritrean authorities recognize three working
languages: Tigrinese, Arabic and English. Tigrinya is
preferably spoken by Christians around Asmera and down to
the Ethiopian border. Arabic is spoken by small groups in
the cities but is widely used as a second language. On the
coastal plain north of Massawa, tigers are spoken by Muslim
nomads. At the far north is the Kushite beja. In the
south-east, the related Kushite languages dominate saho
and aphas.
Religion
The population is roughly evenly distributed between
Muslims and Christians. Muslims dominate western and
northern Eritrea as well as along the Red Sea coast, the
Christians of the Central Highlands. As in Ethiopia, Muslims
are Sunnis. Traditionally, their contacts with Muslims in
the Arabian Peninsula and in Sudan are stronger.
The Christians belong to almost all the Eritrean Orthodox
Church. In Eritrea there are also Catholic and Protestant
Christians. Of the latter, about 12,000–13,000 are members
of two Evangelical Lutheran churches with roots in the
Swedish mission.
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