According to the 2007 Ethiopian national census, this ethnic group has 78,284 members, of whom 99.3% live in the SNNPR.
[1] The Basketo cultivate ensete and, additionally, tuber roots, maize, millet and vegetables.
Traditionally, the Basketo were organized as a segmentary clan society headed by a divine king, the kati.
The ethnic religion of the Basketo knew a duality of the sky-god Tsosii and the earth-mother Qacharunde.
When they were united with the other ethnic groups by King Menilik II in 1893 many of them converted to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.