Amr Hassan, the Consultant to the Health Minister for Population Affairs and Family Development, highlighted on Tuesday that reducing the high population growth in Egypt could be accomplished by addressing the issue of unintended pregnancies, which affect 20 percent of Egyptian women.
The official emphasized that Egypt’s current fertility rate stands at 2.84 and suggested that addressing the issue of unintended pregnancies could aid the country in achieving the normal replacement rate of 2.1.
The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) released a report in January stating that the birth rate in Egypt has decreased by 23.8 percent over the past decade, dropping from 2.6 million in 2013 to 2.04 million in 2023.
The current population stands at 105,901,000 and is projected to increase by 1.6 million in February. A quarter of the population resides in Greater Cairo, encompassing the governorates of Cairo, Giza, and Qalyoubeya.
The most populous governorates in the Delta region of Egypt are Cairo (10,303,000), Giza (9,581,000), Sharqia (7,965,000), Daqahleya (7,091,000), and Qalyoubeya (6,176,000). In Upper Egypt, the order is Menya (6,386,000); Sohag (5,790,000); Asyut (5,115,000); Fayoum (4,128,000); Qena (3,667,000); Beni Suef (3,629,000); Aswan (1,670,000); and Luxor (1,415,000).
The number of births has shown a gradual decline over the past few years. In 2015, there were 2.685 million births, which decreased to 2.596 million in 2016, 2.557 million in 2017, 2.382 million in 2018, 2.304 million in 2019, 2.235 million in 2020, and 2.183 million in 2021. The birth rate continued to decrease in 2023, with 2.044 million births recorded, down from 2.193 million in 2022, representing a decrease of 149,000 births.
