Hawassa city’s population has been increasing in the past year as of other African countries. According to Hawassa City Administration 2007 Socio Economic Profile, much of the population growth is attributed to internal migration, expansion of education and other facilities, widening of city boundaries and related factors. Accordingly, Male 51% and 49% with annual population growth rate 4.02 from this 4.8 in urban and 2.8 in rural. Theabove figures conside with Africa fast urbanizztion trend. Its rate of urbanization soared from 15 percent in 1960 to 40 percent in 2010, and is projected to reach 60 percent in 2050 (UN Habitat 2010).

Hawassa City Population , 2007 Ethiopian Calndar

Source: 2007  Hawassa City Socio Economic Profile

 Among the secondary cities, Bahir Dar, which again has a more diversified economic base, stood first in terms of City product per capita (CPP). Its tourist attraction areas, long established educational institutions and its role as the seat of the regional administration are reckoned to have contributed to its higher productivity. Hawassa is the fifth in overall CPP Ethiopian cities study report by the state of cities in Ethiopia by Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Construction (MUDHCo) and Ethiopian Civil Service University (ECSU) coming next to Adama, Asossa, Bahir-Dar & Debre Markos.

According to The state of cities in Ethiopia by Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Construction (MUDHCo) and Ethiopian Civil Service University (ECSU) The proportion of population below 15 years in Hawassa has declined between 1994 and 2997 significantly from 39.15% to 29.1%. The proportion of migrants has increased sharply between 1994 and 2007 from 55.20% to 70.50% respectively. In the upcoming years this migration rate is expected to grow significantly.

Source: 2007  Hawassa City Socio Economic Profile

An agreement to launch a major project to source, recruit and train 30,000 textile and garment workers for the newly inaugurated Hawassa Industrial Park was signed and is expected to start operation soon .The agreement was signed by Enterprise Partners, Trade and Industry Bureau of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS), Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute, and the Tenants’ Association representing the manufacturers at park. It will also undertake a sourcing process-informing, registering, orienting and pre-selecting a total of 60,000 job seekers (80 percent women) in two and half years from potential recruitment areas within SNNPRS. If these job seekers are to come from other areas than Hawassa, they will cause an increase to city population by 17%.

So far in Ethiopia , Larger towns’ specifically Regional capitals like Mekelle, Bahirdar, Adama, and Hawassa have increased their size more than two fold during the last two decades (2014 Mministry of Urban Development, Housing and Construction).

Hawassa city population will reach more than One million in the upcoming 25.6 years, that is about three fold of current population. However, this population size when compared to largest world cities in the world such as Tokyo :  with an agglomeration of 38 million inhabitants, followed by Delhi with 25 million, Shanghai with 23 million, and Mexico City, Mumbai and São Paulo, each with around 21 million inhabitants, seems small. But in now days, the fastestgrowing urban agglomerations are medium-sized cities and cities with less than 1 million inhabitants located in Asia and Africa.