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Bench people ( Mer Bench),[1] are an Omotic-speaking people indigenous to southwestern Ethiopia. According to the 2007 census there are 353,526 Bench people in Ethiopia, making up 0.48% of the country's total population[2] Bench are among the major ethnic groups inhabiting the Bench Maji Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region (SNNPR), and the majority live in the former district of Bench, which was divided into Debub Bench, Semien Bench, and She Bench districts. Bench language is the ancestral language of Bench people and belongs to the Northern Omotic languages.
- ^ Shinn, David H.; Ofcansky, Thomas P. (2013-04-11). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7457-2.
- ^ 2007 Ethiopian census, first draft Archived 2012-10-18 at the Wayback Machine, Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (accessed 6 May 2009)