Egyptian Population hits 104.2M

CAIRO – 30 September 2017: A conference was held on Saturday to announce the population growth in Egypt for the year 2017. The event was attended by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, members of parliament, representatives of civil society, businessmen, media personnel, and officials in charge of population count processes.

The attendees also include representatives from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Arab Planning Institute.

The population count for the year 2017 marks the 14th count since it first took place in 1982, and the first to be executed electronically. The census was carried out between January and July. The count is conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) every two years.

Abou Bakr al-Gendy, head of CAPMAS, announced that the Egyptian population reached 104,269,501 both domestically and abroad. Those living inside the country amount to 94.8 million, while expats are estimated to be nine million according to the statistics by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The average number of individuals per family in urban areas is 3.9, while for rural families, it is 4.2 both marking an average decrease of 1.2. Citizens who received tertiary education compose 12.4 percent of the population, while illiteracy rates sit at 18.4 percent.

School dropouts mark 28.8 percent throughout the past four years.

Sixty-eight percent of Egyptians are married, three million are widowed and 471,000 women are divorced. 118,000 women below the age of 18, the legal age, are married.

Fifty-one percent of the population enjoy health insurance, 2.6 percent of the population are disabled and 65.4 percent of Egyptians use mobile phones.

Egypt has 16.2 million buildings, of which 5.1 percent are commercial while 83.2 percent are residential. Nearly all, 96.7 percent, of buildings fall within the electricity network, while 40 percent are covered by the sewage network.

Twenty-three percent of the residential units are not sold to residents yet, and 55.3 of the population own their houses.