How many babies are born in Ethiopia each year?

An estimated 4.21 million babies are born in Ethiopia in 2026, according to the UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium projection. That is about 11,530 a day and 3.18% of all births worldwide.

What is the birth rate in Ethiopia?

Ethiopia has an estimated 30.3 births per 1,000 people in 2026, and a total fertility rate of 3.72 children per woman.

Africa · Eastern Africa

How many babies are born in Ethiopia?

4.21 million babies born in Ethiopia in 2026 — 3.18% of all births worldwide, and the 7th largest of any country. UN projection

11,530births per day
481per hour
8per minute
30.3births per 1,000 people
3.72children per woman
138.9 millionpopulation

Plus or minus about 6%. These years have not happened yet or have not been counted yet. They are the medium variant of the UN's projection, not a record of births that took place.

Births in Ethiopia through history

Estimated annual births in Ethiopia, 0 CE to 2026, on a logarithmic scale. The shaded band on the left marks the years where births are modelled rather than recorded. The marker sits on 2026.

Every figure refers to the area inside Ethiopia's present-day borders. Before 1800 the state did not exist in its current form — see how borders are handled.
Year	Estimated births	Population	Per 1,000	Evidence
1 CE	~20K	~470K	42.1	Modelled estimate
1000	~94K	~2.4M	40.0	Modelled estimate
1500	~94K	~2.4M	40.0	Modelled estimate
1800	~592K	~12M	49.2	Historical reconstruction
1900	~872K	~17.7M	49.2	Historical reconstruction
1950	799K	17.7M	45.2	UN estimate
2000	3.07M	67.4M	45.6	UN estimate
2024	4.16M	132M	31.5	UN projection
2026	4.21M	139M	30.3	UN projection

What the numbers show

Annual births in Ethiopia are at their highest in the whole run of estimates in 2026, at about 4.21M. That is roughly 212 times the estimated ~19.9K births a year in 1 CE.

At 3.72 children per woman, fertility in Ethiopia is above the level of about 2.1 that would hold a population steady over the long run without migration.

See Ethiopia on the map

Where these numbers come from

2026 figures are the UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium variant. Earlier years come from the UN's estimates (1950 onward), Gapminder's reconstructions (1800–1949) and a model applied to HYDE population estimates (before 1800). The full chain is set out in the methodology, and every source is listed on the sources page.