The southern part of the region consists of the valley of the Awash River, which empties into a string of lakes along the Djibouti–Ethiopia border.

Other languages with a significant number of speakers in the state include Amharic (6.83%), Tigrinnya (1.06%), Argobba (0.79%), Wolaitta (0.43%), and Oromifa (0.4%).

According to the CSA, as of 2004[update], 48.57% of the total population had access to safe drinking water, of whom 26.89% were rural inhabitants and 78.11% were urban.

The continuous process of volcanism results in the occurrence of major minerals, including potash, sulfur, salt, bentonite and gypsum.

In addition to these minerals, there are also promising geothermal energy sources and hot springs in different areas of the region.

The CSA estimated on the basis of a survey performed in December 2003 that nomadic inhabitants had 1,990,850 cattle (an 83.8% share of those animals in the region that year), 2,303,250 sheep (90.6%), 3,960,510 goats (90%), 759,750 camels (85.9%), 175,180 asses (92.5%), 2960 mules (88.6%), and 900 horses (100%).

Many governments around the world advise against traveling to the Afar region, citing increasing security concerns.

[18] Hadar, a community in Afar, was the site of the discovery in 1973–1974 of "Lucy", the Australopithecus afarensis skeletal remains, by Donald Johanson of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

In June 2010, the oldest direct evidence of stone tool manufacture was found in the Afar region and attributed to Australopithecus afarensis.

[20][21] In 2013, a graduate student from the Arizona State University discovered a hominid jawbone in the Ledi-Geraru region of Afar.

The species lived around 3.5–3.3 million years ago, about the same time period as other hominins such as Australopithecus afarensis.