Southwest Shewa Zone

A map of the regions and zones of Ethiopia.

Southwest Shewa (Amharic: Debub Mirab Shewa; Afan Oromo: Shawaa Kibba-lixaa) is one of the zones of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia. This zone takes its name from the kingdom or former province of Shewa. Between 2002 and 2005, a number of woredas were separated from West Shewa Zone to create Southwest Shewa Zone. Inhabitants of this zone include an assimilation between the Oromo and Gurage peoples, the Chebo people.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this Zone has a total population of 1,101,129, of whom 556,194 are men and 544,935 women. 149,878 or 13.61% of population are urban inhabitants. A total of 233,916 households were counted in this Zone, which results in an average of 4.71 persons to a household, and 227,102 housing units. The three largest ethnic groups reported in Southwest Shewa were the Oromo (87.08%), the Amhara (6.16%) and the Gurage (5.06%); all other ethnic groups made up 1.7% of the population. Oromiffa was spoken as a first language by 84.85%, 8.41% spoke Amharic and 5.57% spoke Guragiegna; the remaining 1.17% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants professed Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, with 77.82% of the population having reported they practiced that belief, while 11.11% of the population were Muslim, 8.81% of the population professed Protestantism and 2.04% said they held traditional beliefs.