 Merhabiete was originally named Lay Betna Tach Bet (Amharic "The Upper House and Lower House"), the name used in the 1994 national census, but it was changed before the Ethiopian Agricultural Sample Survey in October 2001, which used the present name.Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 126,501, an increase of 27.87% over the 1994 census, of whom 63,997 are men and 62,504 women; 13,113 or 10.37% are urban inhabitants.With an area of 1,058.19 square kilometers, Merhabete has a population density of 119.54, which is greater than the Zone average of 115.3 persons per square kilometer.