Samre or Saharti Samre is one of the 36 woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

s in the Tigray Region

Tigray Region

Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...

 of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Part of the Debubawi (Southern) Zone

Debubawi Zone

Debubawi is one of five Zones in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. Debubawi is bordered on the south and west by the Amhara Region, on the northwest by Mehakelegnaw , the north by Misraqawi and on the east by the Afar Region...

, Samre is bordered on the south by the Amhara Region

Amhara Region

Amhara is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, containing the homeland of the Amhara people. Previously known as Region 3, its capital is Bahir Dar....

, on the west and north by the Mehakelegnaw (Central) Zone

Mehakelegnaw Zone

Mehakelegnaw is a Zone in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. Mehakelegnaw is bordered on the east by Misraqawi , on the south by Debubawi , on the west by Mirabawi and on the north by Eritrea...

, on the northeast by Enderta

Enderta (woreda)

Enderta is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It was named for the former Enderta province, which was later merged into Tigray Province...

, on the east by Hintalo Wajirat

Hintalo Wajirat

Hintalo Wajirat is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is named after its largest town, Hintalo, and the Wajirat Mountains in the southern part of the woreda...

, and on the southeast by Alaje

Alaje

Alaje is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debubawi Zone, Alaje is bordered on the south by Endamehoni, on the west by the Amhara Region, on the northwest by Samre, on the northeast by Hintalo Wajirat, and on the east by Raya Azebo...

. Towns in this woreda include Gijet and Samre

Samre, Ethiopia

Samre is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Debubawi Zone of the Tigray Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1855 meters above sea level. It is one of two towns in Samre woreda.- History :...

.

Rivers in this woreda include the Samre, which is of historical importance as it was the traditional boundary between Tigray Province

Tigray Province

Tigray was a province of Ethiopia. The Tigray Region superseded the province with the adoption of the new constitution in 1995. The province of Tigre merged with its neighboring provinces, including Semien, Tembien, Agame and the prominent Enderta province and towards the end of 19th century it...

 to the north, and Lasta

Lasta

Lasta is a historic district in north-central Ethiopia. It is the district in which Lalibela is situated, the former capital of Ethiopia during the Zagwe dynasty and home to 11 medieval rock-hewn churches....

 or Wag

Wag

Wag is a traditional highland district in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, in the approximate location of the modern Wag Hemra Zone. Weld Blundell described the district as bounded on the south by the mountains of Lasta, on the east and north by the Tellare River, and the west by the Tekezé...

 to the south. Local points of interest in this woreda include the rock-hewn churches of Arbatu Insesa and Iyasus Hinta.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

 of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 124,340, an increase of 40.18% over the 1994 census, of whom 61,868 are men and 62,472 women; 9,189 or 7.39% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 2,723.89 square kilometers, Samre has a population density of 45.65, which is less than the Zone average of 53.91 persons per square kilometer. A total of 26,461 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.70 persons to a household, and 25,837 housing units.

The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 88,701, of whom 44,103 were men and 44,598 were women; 4,038 or 4.55% of its population were urban dwellers. The two largest ethnic groups reported in Samre were the Tigrayan

Tigray-Tigrinya people

Tigray-Tigrinya are an ethnic group who live in the southern, central and northern parts of Eritrea and the northern highlands of Ethiopia's Tigray province. They also live in Ethiopia's former provinces of Begemder and Wollo, which are today mostly part of Amhara Region, though a few regions...

 (98.43%), and the Agaw

Agaw

The Agaw are an ethnic group in Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea.-History:The Agaw are perhaps first mentioned in the 3rd c. AD Aksumite inscription recorded by Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 6th century...

 Kamyr (1.12%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.45% of the population. Tigrinya

Tigrinya language

Tigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrnia, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two main languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it...

 was spoken as a first language by 98.35%, and 1.12% spoke Kamyr; the remaining 0.53% spoke all other primary languages reported. 98.24% of the population practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 1.52% were Muslim

Islam in Ethiopia

According to the latest 2007 national census, Islam is the second most widely practised religion in Ethiopia after Christianity, with over 25 million of Ethiopians adhering to Islam according to the 2007 national census, having arrived in Ethiopia in 615...

. Concerning education

Education in Ethiopia

Education in Ethiopia has been dominated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for many centuries until secular education was adopted in the early 1900s. Prior to 1974, Ethiopia had an estimated illiteracy rate well above 90% and compared poorly with the rest of Africa in the provision of schools and...

, 6.57% of the population were considered literate, which is less than the Zone average of 15.71%; 6.21% of children aged 7-12 were in primary school; 0.13% of the children aged 13-14 were in junior secondary school; and a negligible number of the inhabitants aged 15-18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning sanitary conditions

Water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia

Access to water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia is amongst the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa and the entire world. While access has increased substantially with funding from external aid, much still remains to be done to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving the share of people...

, about 47% of the urban houses and 12% of all houses had access to safe drinking water at the time of the census; about 6% of the urban and about 2% of the total had toilet facilities.

Agriculture

A sample enumeration performed by the CSA in 2001 interviewed 22,957 farmers in this woreda, who held an average of 1.47 hectares of land. Of the 33,649 hectares of private land surveyed, 91.52% was in cultivation, 0.15% pasture, 6.34% fallow, and 1.98% was devoted to other uses. For the land under cultivation in Samre, 81.56% was planted in cereals, 7.52% in pulses, 2.11% in oilseeds, and 10 hectares in vegetables. The area planted in fruit trees was 53 hectares, while 31 were planted in gesho. 82.22% of the farmers both raised crops and livestock, while 16.16% only grew crops and 1.62% only raised livestock. Land tenure in this woreda is distributed amongst 81.27% owning their land, and 18.37% renting; the number held in other forms of tenure is missing.