Brief Introduction

Tigray is one of the nine (9) administrative regions in Ethiopia. It is comprised of seven zones, of
which the Eastern zone is base for the Kiltie Awlaelo Health and Demographic Surveillance Site. The
Kiltie Awlaelo HDSS includes 10 kebeles (districts) selected from Eastern zone considering agro
climatic, rural/urban and other several other factors to assure representations. Nine of the study
districts are rural and only one is from urban. The site is located 802km North of Addis Ababa, the
capital of Ethiopia.
The surveillance was started in 2009, with a baseline population of 65, 848 (urban 87.2% and
13.7% from rural) living in 14,454 households. The population comprises mainly of orthodox
Christians (93.4%) and others like Moslems (1.6), catholic and protestant (0.08%).
Among adults of 15 years and above, 29.1% are engaged in farming, 23% are students, 21.9%
housewives, and 4.5% seeking for job. Regarding to educational status of the surveillance
population for those aged seven and above years, 33.5% are unable to read and write, 8.5% able to
read and write but had no formal schooling, 32.6% educated to primary school, 21% to secondary
school and 1.6% to secondary and above.
The population distribution shows it is quite youthful. Eighty four percept of the total population is
of less than 45 year of age. Only 5.2% of the population is aged 65 and above years old.

Demographic Characteristics
Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

22.0 per 1000 population

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

4.4 per woman

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

4.4 per 1000 population

Neonatal Mortality

18.3 per 1000 live births

Post-neonatal Mortality

12.2 per 1000 live births

Infant Mortality

30.4 per 1000 live births

Child (1-4) mortality rate

1.3 per 1000 children aged 1-4 years

Under-five mortality rate

39.9 per 1000 live births

In-Migration rate

15.0 per 1000 population

Out-Migration rate

47.5 per 1000 population

Crude rate of natural increase

1.8 per 100 population

Objectives:
1. Generate and disseminate information on major vital events that support evidence
based public health interventions.
2. Avail up-to-date sampling frame and population level data for collaborative local
and international researchers.
3. Serve as epidemiological field study centre for learning and teaching process.
4. Scale up to include field laboratory for medical and biomedical researches.
5. Facilitate the undertakings of multidisciplinary basic and applied research.
6. Identify causes of death using verbal autopsy method.

Mortality rates*, by age and sex ---

One year Mortality rate by age in Kilite Awlaelo Demographic and Health Surveillance
Site, March 2012

Fertility rates*

One year age specific fertility rate in Kilite Awlaelo Health and Demographic
Surveillance Site, 2011.

Population dynamics by sex of Kilite Awlaelo Demographic and Health Surveillance

Site, 2011
Dynamics indicator

Sex

Rate total/
1000py

rate for males/

Rate for females /

1000py

1000Py

Birth rate

12.93

11.72

10

Death rate

2.78

1.75

2.25

Immigration rate

5.96

6.04

Out migration rate

21.78

18.86

20.28

(* with mortality and fertility rates include trend lines, if available, based on
retrospective and prospective analyses)
Funders

CDC/EPHA

Mekelle University, Ethiopia