96.7% of youth in the age group 18-29 use mobile phones: CAPMAS

CAIRO – 12 August 2017: 96.7 percent of youth aged 18-29 years, use mobile phones (97.6 percent males and 95.5 percent females) and 61.9 percent use internet, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on the occasion of the World Youth Day.

All data in the press release referred to youth in the age group 18-29 years. It revealed that 62 percent of computer users are youth, 50% of them use computer for educational purposes while 68 percent use it for entertainment. 76.8 percent of the 61.9 percent on the Internet are Facebook and Twitter users.

The press release also included general data on youth representation of the overall population in Egypt, which reached 23.6 percent in 2016 (51 percent males and 49 percent females). It also indicated a doubled gender gap in youth representation and contribution to labor force with an overall percentage of 48.5 percent (67 percent males and 29.3 percent females). This percentage was translated in the percentage of unemployment rate, which reached an overall percentage of 26.7 percent (21.6 percent among males and 38.8 among females).

When examining the relation between education level and employment, CAPMAS states that unemployment among university or higher degree holders is 37.7 percent (29.8 percent males and 48.4 females).

Data on marital status show that young married males represent 62.6 percent of the total married males with a divorce rate among the same age group reaching 23.2 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of young married females is 83.6 percent of the total married females, and the divorce rate is 43.6 percent.

Finally the press release showed that there are about 2.6 million students enrolled in higher education (52.3 percent males and 47.7 females). 74 percent of these students are enrolled in practical colleges, while 26 percent enrolled in theoretical colleges, and 96.5 percent of 2016 graduates were from governmental universities.

The World Youth Day is celebrated annually on August 12, since 1999 when the United Nations (UN) General Assembly endorsed the recommendation to dedicate a day to celebrate the largest youth generation in history around the world. This recommendation came during the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth in 1998 and the first World Youth Day was celebrated in the following year 1999. The World Youth Day theme for 2017 is Youth Building Peace, to recognize the vital role of youth as change agents in achieving sustainable world peace.

You can follow the events from around the world and discussions related to young people’s contribution to conflict prevention, transformation and sustainable peace on the following hashtag #YouthDay #Youth4Peace #ActOn2250