Egyptian population grows by 0.5M in 100 days

CAIRO – 21 October 2021: Former official at the National Council for Population Amr Hassan stated Wednesday in a phone-in that the Egyptian population grew by half a million in the previous 100 days.

Hassan pointed out that the most populated governorates out of the 27 are Cairo, Giza, Sharqia, Daqahlia, and Beheira.

The former official seconded President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi's opinion that the annual population growth has to be cut to 400,000 per annum down from over two million.

Hassan noted that Egypt has been trying to combat overpopulation since 1965 but has not succeeded because of a bundle of negative social practices. Those are child labor, child marriage, and the high illiteracy rates among women as it reaches 31 percent.

The former official hinted that the government has to work more on resolving that issue saying that the eighties and the nineties were the golden age of awareness campaigns on family planning.  

Hassan added that rural women should be encouraged to enter the labor market so that having a large number of children would not be a priority for them.