The number of Egyptians living inside the country will reach 91 million on 5 June, the deputy head of the state statistics body CAPMAS, Mohamed Abdel-Gelil, told Al-Hayat television channel on Sunday.
Egypt’s domestic population – which excludes the estimated 8 million citizens living abroad – is increasing rapidly.
Abdel-Gelil said that the population has jumped from 80 million to 90 million in the past five years, whereas it took 50 years for the population to increase from 10 million in 1900 to 20 million in 1950.
Egyptians reached the 90 million mark on 6 December last year, according to CAPMAS’s estimations.
Later this year Egypt will conduct a national census. The censuses, which began in 1882, take place every ten years. The poll in 2006 revealed the total population of the country to be 72.7 million.
The census “is very important for the governmental policies and programmes necessary to achieve sustainable and comprehensive development,” CAMPAS said in a statement on Thursday in which it called for 40,000 young people to collect the data.
The data will be collected between 20 August and 9 February 2017, and will include information about citizens’ residences, empty buildings, and people’s access to utilities, Abdel-Gelil said.
The growing population is marked by flashing figures on a digital screen atop CAPMAS’s headquarters in eastern Cairo. The figure is based on estimations of increases since the last census.
Abdel-Gelil said that the natural increase rate – the number of births minus the number of deaths – had decreased last year.
In 2014, the natural increase rate was 2.5 percent, while in 2015 it was registered 2.4 percent.
He added that by 2030, Egypt plans to reach a natural increase of 1.5 percent per year, as per its sustainable development vision.
source: Ahram Online
