CAPMAS: Egypt’s Population Surges by 1.6 M in 2022

Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) revealed that the country’s population, one with the fastest growth rate worldwide, increased by 1.6 million from 2021 to 2022.

The surge was reported by CAPMAS on Wednesday, revealing that Cairo’s population stood at 10.2 million, followed by the city of Giza at 9.5 million, Ahram reports.

It is estimated that approximately 10 to 14 million Egyptians lived abroad, living mostly in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE. They have been providing an unprecedented increase of 72 percent in remittances between 2015 and 2021.

Currently the birth rate has fallen to 2.85 per woman in 2021, from 3.5 in 2014 as per CAPMAS’ 2021 Health Survey.

Nonetheless, overpopulation remains a significant challenge as it risks leaping to just under 160 million by 2050, providing additional obstacles to its already limited resources, social stability and economy. In larger cities, a population increase also exacerbates the challenges of environmental pollution, congestion, urban density and public services.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Social Solidarity launched a two-year campaign “2 Kefaya (Two [children] is enough) in order to curb the number of children in Egypt, particularly in its most populated areas.

Moreover, Egypt’s government has been developing and initiating new cities, in a bid to draw the population away from the Delta and the most densely populated areas to newer residential spaces.