People:
Population: 66,050,004 (July 1998 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 36% (male 12,173,882; female 11,637,239)
15-64 years: 60% (male 20,108,426; female 19,718,302)
65 years and over: 4% (male 1,074,271; female 1,337,884) (July 1998
est.)
Population growth rate: 1.86% (1998 est.)
Birth rate: 27.31 births/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Death rate: 8.41 deaths/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.35 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female (1998 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 69.23 deaths/1,000 live births (1998 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 62.07 years
male: 60.09 years
female: 64.14 years (1998 est.)
Total fertility rate: 3.41 children born/woman (1998 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Egyptian(s)
adjective: Egyptian
Ethnic groups: Eastern Hamitic stock (Egyptians, Bedouins, and Berbers) 99%, Greek, Nubian, Armenian, other European (primarily Italian and French) 1%
Religions: Muslim (mostly Sunni) 94% (official estimate), Coptic Christian and other 6% (official estimate)
Languages: Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by educated classes
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 51.4%
male: 63.6%
female: 38.8% (1995 est.)
Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world and the second-most populous on the African Continent. Nearly 100% of the country's 58 million people live in Cairo and Alexandria; elsewhere on the banks of the Nile; in the Nile delta, which fans out north of Cairo; and along the Suez Canal. These regions are among the world's most densely populated, containing an average of over 1,540 person per square kilometer (3,820 per sq. mi.).
Small communities spread throughout the desert regions of Egypt are clustered around oases and historic trade and transportation routes. The government has tried with mixed success to encourage migration to newly irrigated land reclaimed from the desert. However, the proportion of the population living in rural areas has continued to decrease as people move to the cities in search of employment and a higher standard of living.
The Egyptians are a fairly homogeneous people of Hamitic origin. Mediterranean and Arab influences appear in the north, and there is some mixing in the south with the Nubians of northern Sudan. Ethnic minorities include a small number of Bedouin Arab nomads in the eastern and western deserts and in the Sinai, as well as some 50,000-100,000 Nubians clustered along the Nile in upper Egypt.
The literacy rate is about 48% of the adult population. Education is free through university and compulsory from ages six through 12. About 87% of children enter primary school; half drop out after their sixth year. There are 20,000 primary and secondary schools with some 10 million students, 12 major universities with about 500,000 students, and 67 teacher colleges. Major universities include Cairo University (100,000 students), Alexandria University, and the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar University, one of the world's major centers of Islamic learning.
Egypt's vast and rich literature
constitutes an important cultural element in the life of the country
and in the Arab world as a whole. Egyptian novelists and poets were
among the first to experiment with new styles of Arabic literature,
and the forms they developed have been widely imitated. Egyptian novelist
Naguib Mahjfouz was the first Arab to win the Nobel prize for literature.
Egyptian books and films are available throughout the Middle East.