Demographics of Egypt

Demographics of Egypt
Population pyramid of Egypt in 2020
Population104,400,000
Growth rate1.68% (2022pest.)
Birth rate19.4 births/1,000 population (2023)
Death rate5.5 deaths/1,000 population (2023)
Life expectancy74.45 years
 • male73.26 years
 • female75.72 years
Fertility rate2.58 children (2023 est.)
Infant mortality rate17.7 deaths/1,000 live births
Net migration rate-0.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population
Sex ratio
Total1.06 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
At birth1.06 male(s)/female
Language
OfficialArabic
2010 population density

Egypt is the most populous country in the Middle East, and the fourth-most populous on the African continent, after Nigeria, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of the Congo.[1][2] About 95%[3] of the country's 104 million people (July 2023)[4] live along the banks of the Nile and in the Nile Delta, which fans out north of Cairo; and along the Suez Canal. These regions are among the world's most densely populated, containing an average of over 1,540 people per km2, as compared to 96 persons per km2 for the country as a whole.

Small communities spread throughout the desert regions of Egypt are clustered around historic trade and transportation routes. The government has tried with mixed success to encourage migration to newly irrigated land reclaimed from the desert. However, the proportion of the population living in rural areas has continued to decrease as people move to the megacities in search of employment and a higher standard of living.

According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics and other proponents of demographic structural approach (cliodynamics), the basic problem Egypt has is an unemployment rate driven by a demographic youth bulge: with the number of new people entering the job force at about 4% a year, unemployment in Egypt is almost 10 times as high for college graduates as it is for people who have gone through elementary school, particularly educated urban youth, who comprised most of the people that were seen out in the streets during the Egyptian revolution of 2011. An estimated 51.2% of Egyptians are under the age of 25, with just 4.3% over the age of 65, making it one of the most youthful populations in the world.[5][6]

  1. ^ "الجهاز المركزي للتعبئة العامة والإحصاء". www.capmas.gov.eg. Archived from the original on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Population - the World Factbook".
  3. ^ "Egypt Facts". National Geographic.
  4. ^ "population clock". Egypt Central Agency for Public Mobilization And Statistics.
  5. ^ Korotayev A., Zinkina J. Egyptian Revolution: A Demographic Structural Analysis. Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar 13 (2011): 139–169.
  6. ^ "The long-term economic challenges Egypt must overcome". Marketplace. 1 February 2011. Archived from the original on 4 February 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2011.