Tigrayans

Tigrayans
ተጋሩ (Tigrinya)
ትግራይ(Ge'ez)
A Tigrayan man during the threshing of teff (Eragrostis tef) near Samre
Regions with significant populations
 Ethiopia5.9[1]-7.5[2] million (2024)
 Sudan60,000[3]
 United States22,000[4]
 Canada2,155[5]
Languages
Tigrinya
Religion
Overwhelming Majority:
Christianity
Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodoxy ~97.6%
Catholicism ~0.4%
Minority:
Sunni Islam ~2%[6]
Related ethnic groups
Habesha (Tigrinya, Amhara) • Tigre • Argobba • Beta Israel • Irob • Kunama • Agaw • Gurage • Harari • Zay • other[7][8]

a The word "Orthodoxy" here refers to Oriental Orthodoxy, not to be confused with Eastern Orthodoxy. All Habesha Orthodox Churches (EOTC, EriOTC and TOTC) are part of the Oriental Orthodox communion.

The Tigrayan people (Tigrinya: ተጋሩ, romanized: Təgaru) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia.[9][10][11] They speak Tigrinya, an Afroasiatic language belonging to the North Ethio-Semitic language descended from Geʽez, and written in the Geʽez script serves as the main and one of the five official languages of Ethiopia.[12] Tigrinya is also the main language of the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea, who share ethnic, linguistic, and religious ties with Tigrayans.[13]

According to the 2007 national census, Tigrayans numbered approximately 4,483,000 individuals, making up 6.07% of Ethiopia’s total population at the time.[14] The majority of Tigrayans adhere to Oriental Orthodox Christianity, specifically the Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church, although minority communities also follow Islam or Catholicism.[15]

Historically, the Tigrayan people are closely associated with the Aksumite Empire whose political and religious center was in Tigray,[16][17] and later the Ethiopian Empire.[18] Tigrayans played major roles in the political history of Ethiopia, including during the 17th-century Zemene Mesafint (Era of the Princes), and later in the 20th century through events the Woyane rebellion and the Ethiopian Student Movement, or movements like Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which became the dominant faction in the coalition that overthrew the Derg in 1991 and ruled Ethiopia through the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) until 2018.[19][20]

Like other northern highland peoples, Tigrayans often identify with the broader Habesha (Abyssinian) identity—a term used historically to describe the Semitic-speaking Christian populations of the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands.[21][22]

Areas where Tigrayans have strong ancestral links are: Enderta, Agame, Tembien, Kilite Awlalo, Axum, Raya, Humera, Welkait, and Tsegede. The latter three areas are now under the de facto administration of the Amhara Region, having been forcibly annexed by Amhara during the Tigray War.

  1. ^ Ethiopian Statistical Service (September 2024). "Projected Population – 2024" (PDF). Ethiopian Statistical Service. Retrieved July 1, 2025.
  2. ^ "Tigrigna: Ethiopia". Ethnologue. SIL International. 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  3. ^ "Tigrayans in Sudan: A Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds". Modern Diplomacy. 9 August 2024. Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  4. ^ "Tigray, Tigrinya in United States". Joshua Project. Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  5. ^ "Canada: Ethnic origin (279), Single and multiple ethnic origin responses". Statistics Canada. 2016. Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  6. ^ Pagani, Luca; Kivisild, Toomas (July 2012). "Ethiopian Genetic Diversity Reveals Linguistic Stratification and Complex Influences on the Ethiopian Gene Pool". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 91 (1): 83–96. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.05.015. PMC 3397267. PMID 22726845.
  7. ^ Prunier, Gerard; Ficquet, Eloi (2015). Understanding contemporary Ethiopia. London: Hurst & Company. p. 39. OCLC 810950153.
  8. ^ Levine, Donald N. (2000). Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226475615. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  9. ^ Smidt, Wolbert (2007). "Tigrayans". In Uhlig, Siegbert (ed.). Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
  10. ^ Shinn, David; Ofcansky, Thomas (2004). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. pp. 378–380. ISBN 978-0-8108-4910-5.
  11. ^ Ullendorff, Edward (1973). The Ethiopians. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 31, 35–37.
  12. ^ Shaban, Abdurahman. "One to five: Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages". Africa News. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  13. ^ Gragg, Gene B. (1997). Robert Hetzron (ed.). Tigrinya. Routledge. pp. 425–445. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  14. ^ "Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census" (PDF). Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia. 2008. Retrieved 2025-07-14.
  15. ^ Abbink, Jon (2013). "Religion in Public Spaces: Emerging Muslim–Christian Polemics in Ethiopia". African Affairs. 112 (446): 253–274. doi:10.1093/afraf/adt008.
  16. ^ Phillipson, David W. (2012). Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn, 1000 BC–AD 1300. James Currey.
  17. ^ Munro-Hay 1991.
  18. ^ Taddesse Tamrat (1972). Church and State in Ethiopia (1270–1527). Oxford University Press. pp. 98–99.
  19. ^ Young, John (1997). Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia: The Tigray People's Liberation Front, 1975–1991. Cambridge University Press.
  20. ^ Vaughan, Sarah (2003). Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia. University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 2025-07-14.
  21. ^ Levine, Donald N. (1972). "The Concept of "Greater Ethiopia"". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 10 (3): 367–376. doi:10.1017/S0022278X00024756 (inactive 18 July 2025).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  22. ^ Marcus, Harold G. (1994). A History of Ethiopia. University of California Press.
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