A press conference of Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics is held in Cairo, Egypt, on Feb. 11, 2020. Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics said on Tuesday that the population in the country has reached 100 million. (Photo by Mohamed El Raai/Xinhua)
CAIRO, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics said on Tuesday that the population in the country has reached 99 million.
Khairat Barakat, head of the agency, told a press conference in Cairo that the population of Egypt at home has hit 100 million, compared to 99 million on July 22 last year, excluding Egyptian expatriates whose number exceeds 9 million.
The capital Cairo recorded the highest number of 9.9 million people, followed by Giza with a population of 9.1 million, Sharqiya with 7.5 million and Daqahlia with 6.8 million.
The Egyptian official noted that the population problem is one of the biggest challenges facing the most populous Arab country, adding that "no development or economic projects can survive in light of this rapid increase."
He warned that the rates of population growth have serious consequences.
The Egyptian government is concerned that the growing population will pose additional challenges to its already limited resources, social stability and economy.
Accordingly, the government launched a two-year campaign called "two is enough" in order to curb the rapidly growing birthrates.
The Egyptian government has also been building 20 new cities of the fourth generation to improve life quality, expand the residential area and absorb the population increase in the country.
The largest of the 20 new cities under construction is the New Administrative Capital, east of Cairo.
