Table 2.

Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of mothers of infants in Mettu town, 2021 (n=354)

Variable	Categories	Frequency	Percentage
Sex of child	Male	184	51.98
	Female	170	48.02
Age of child (months)	0–11	187	52.8
	12–23	167	47.2
Maternal age	<30	329	92.9
	≥30	25	7.1
Religion of mother	Orthodox	136	38.5
	Muslim	111	31.4
	Protestant	96	27
	Others*	11	3.1
Ethnicity of mother	Oromo	289	81.7
	Amhara	36	10.1
	Gurage	14	4
	Others†	15	4.2
Level of education	No formal education	32	9
	Primary	141	39.8
	Secondary and above	181	51.2
Occupational status	Housewife	160	45.3
	Merchant	36	10.2
	Government employee	53	14.9
	Private employee	48	13.7
	Student	39	10.9
	Others†‡	18	4.97
Current marital status	Married	321	90.7
	Single	20	5.6
	Divorced	11	3.1
	Widowed	2	0.6
Family size	<3	96	27.2
	4–5	165	46.5
	>5	93	26.3
Wealth status	Lower tertile	93	26.2
	Middle tertile	145	41
	Higher tertile	116	32.8

*Catholic, Wakefata and Jiohava.

†Kambata, Hadiya, Tigre, Agnuak and Nuer.

‡Daily labourerand farmer.