Egypt’s domestic population reached 109 million people on Saturday, 9 May, 2026, according to a statement issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).
The population had previously stood at 108 million on Saturday, 16 August, 2025, as recorded by CAPMAS’s population clock, which is linked to the births and deaths registry database at the Ministry of Health and Population.
This means a net population increase of one million people was achieved in just 267 days, which is equivalent to 8 months and 27 days.
The number of births reached 1.452 million during the period from 16 August, 2025 to 9 May 2026, at an average of 5,439 births per day, 227 births per hour, and 3.8 births per minute, meaning one new birth approximately every 15.9 seconds.
The daily death average saw a slight increase, reaching 1,694 deaths per day during the current million-person increment, compared to 1,681 during the previous million and 1,654 during the one before that.
CAPMAS also noted that the time needed for the latest million people to be born has shortened compared to previous periods. It took just 267 days to go from 108 to 109 million, versus 287 days for the previous million and 268 days for the one before that.
This is attributed to a rise in the average daily birth rate, which climbed to 5,439 during the current period, up from 5,165 when the population reached 108 million.
The explosive growth has placed enormous strain on the country’s resources. Egypt has already fallen into water poverty, with the individual water share dropping to around 550–580 cubic meters per year once the population crossed 60 million.
Although Egypt’s total land area is over one million square kilometres, the vast majority of its population is crammed into just 8 percent of that territory, the Nile Valley and Delta, creating one of the most densely populated corridors on earth.
In 2019, the government launched the “Two Is Enough” campaign, aiming to challenge the cultural tradition of large families, particularly in rural areas.
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who has described high birth rates as a threat to national security and named overpopulation alongside terrorism as Egypt’s two greatest threats, has made population control a central priority of his presidency.
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