Demographics of Egypt | |
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![]() Population pyramid of Egypt in 2020 | |
Population | 116,538,210 (2024 est.) |
Growth rate | 1.4% (2023est.) |
Birth rate | 19.4 births/1,000 population (2023) |
Death rate | 5.5 deaths/1,000 population (2023) |
Life expectancy | 74.45 years |
• male | 73.26 years |
• female | 75.72 years |
Fertility rate | 2.58 children (2023 est.) |
Infant mortality rate | 17.7 deaths/1,000 live births |
Net migration rate | -0.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population |
Sex ratio | |
Total | 1.06 male(s)/female (2022 est.) |
At birth | 1.06 male(s)/female |
Nationality | |
Nationality | Egyptian |
Major ethnic | |
Minor ethnic | |
Language | |
Official | Arabic |
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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]