Towns and cities in the Eastern Zone include Adigrat, Atsbi, Hawzen, and Wukro.

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this Zone has a total population of 755,343, of whom 359,638 are men and 395,705 women; 146,064 or 19.34% are urban inhabitants.

The Zone is predominantly Tigrayan, at 94.9% of the population, while 3.6% were Saho 0.9% were Afar, 0.3% Eritrean, and all other ethnic groups 0.2%.

[3] According to a 24 May 2004 World Bank memorandum, 9% of the inhabitants of the zone have access to electricity, and has a road density of 88.2 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers, the average rural household has 0.5 hectare of land (compared to the national average of 1.01 hectare of land and a regional average of 0.51)[4] and the equivalent of 0.7 heads of livestock.

The memorandum gave this zone a drought risk rating of 573.