Regional state

South Ethiopia

Terraced hills of the Konso Cultural Landscape · photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0 (source)

South Ethiopia is a regional state of Ethiopia, covering 48,293 km² — 4.3% of the national territory, 6th of the 12 regional states by area. Its administrative centre is Sodo. It comprises 12 zones and 93 woredas (districts). It contains 3 UNESCO World Heritage sites.

South Ethiopia, established in 2023, runs from the Rift Valley lakes of Abaya and Chamo down the Lower Omo valley. It carries two World Heritage inscriptions: the terraced Konso Cultural Landscape and the Lower Valley of the Omo, whose fossil beds document several million years of human evolution.

Sources: UNESCO — Konso · UNESCO — Lower Omo

Where South Ethiopia sits in Ethiopia

48,293

km²

4.3%

of national territory

zones

woredas

6th

by area of 12 states

Administrative centreSodo

P-codeET08

Boundary valid from2025-01-01

The 2022 population projections predate this region's formation; no figure is shown rather than an estimate.

World Heritage

Lower Omo Valley

cultural · inscribed 1980

Konso

cultural · inscribed 2011

Gedeo

cultural · inscribed 2023

Zones

Alle Special Ari Basketo Burji Derashe Gamo Gedeo Gofa Konso Kore South Omo Wolayita

View South Ethiopia on the map →

Every figure on this page is computed from the OCHA COD-AB Ethiopia dataset (April 2026 release, CC BY 3.0 IGO). Richer geographic and historical profiles, with cited sources, arrive in Phase 2.