Egyptian Population Reaches 104.2 Million: CAPMAS

Egyptian population hits 104.2 million; 94.98 million live within Egypt while 9.4 million live abroad, said Abu Bakr El Gendy, the head of Egypt’s Statistics Body Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

A conference was held on Saturday to announce the population growth in Egypt for the year 2017. The conference was attended by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, as well as a number of Egypt’s cabinet and senior officials.

Census data revealed that Egypt’s capital Cairo and Giza governorate have a combined population of 18.1 million. Youth aged 15 to 24 years old constitute 18.2 percent of the total population. And about 68 percent of the population is married.

While Egypt enjoys a wealth of human capital, the new data and statistics raise concerns on issues of economic growth, unemployment rates and minimum wages and family planning programs among others.

Egypt suffers from 12 percent unemployment rate, according to CAPMAS report in 2016. About 18.4 million are illiterate, which equals quarter the population, out of that figure, 10.6 million are females.

As for the currency, the Egyptian pound still struggles against the US dollar. The official selling price of the US dollar stands at approximately EGP 17.70.

Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, has been struggling economically to allow its reforms to make a difference to the country’s poor majority.

Earlier in November 2016, Egypt launched an economic reform program as part of the IMF deal aiming to achieve financial stability,  promote growth and alleviate poverty.

The reforms introduced included the floatation of the currency and lifting state subsidies on fuel among others.

Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report on September 26  saying that Egypt is “off to a good start” and it further evaluated Egypt’s economic status.