Egypt stares at 100 million population
3 minutes read
· Egypt is now concerned about the population it adds every
year, as the country is gasping as its numbers are breaching 100
million mark
· While Egyptians were numbered around 57 million 30 years ago,
the 2017 census counted that it was nearly 97 million
Egypt is now concerned about the population it adds every year, as the
country is gasping as its numbers are breaching 100 million mark. It
portends two things. One, its limited resources have to be shared
among more number of people, dwindling its per capita wealth.
Secondly, poor basic facilities in the rural side are compelling
hordes of people every day to migrate to the already choked urban
centers.
Egypt, the North African country, is the most populous Arab nation as
also the third most populated country in Africa. Statistically a new
baby is born in Egypt roughly every 17.9 seconds. Nearly one in three
Egyptians are living below the poverty line. There is massive
unemployment , which is pegged at 10 percent of the population. In
the past three decades, around 1.5 million babies were born every
year. Now there is a let up due government’s effort towards
restricting the family size.
Overpopulation has presented a myriad of challenges to the resource
scarce country. While Egyptians were numbered around 57 million 30
years ago, the 2017 census counted that it was nearly 97 million.
Demographic experts feel that presently the number would have gone
beyond 100 million. For a country, which has the resources to feed its
people, 100 million is not a panicky number. For instance, in China
and India, one province can have more than that number. But that is
the not the case with Egypt so much so that Egyptian President
Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said that terrorism and overpopulation
represented the two biggest threats to Egypt.
