By Jheruleene Anne Ramos
Egypt’s population growth rate hit a record low in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, a recent report shared by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health & Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar has revealed.
The country’s population rose from 104.4 million in January 2023 to 107.2 million in January 2025, reflecting a slowed annual growth rate of 1.34%, down from 1.4% in 2024 and 1.6% in 2023, according to Egypt Today.
The report also noted that the governorate of Port Said recorded the lowest Q1 population growth rate at 0.61%, followed by Cairo at 0.86%.
Other governorates that recorded a notable decline in population growth rate included Sohag, which witnessed a 1.97% decline, down from 2.2% in previous years.
Decline reflects long-term trend
This news follows a separate report, issued by the National Project for Egyptian Family Development in 2024, showing that Egypt’s population growth rate shrank by at least 1.4% in 2023.
The broader trend is thus clearly one of nominal population decline.
Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said has previously stated that the 2023 decrease – less than the 2.6% recorded in 2017 – was the lowest in the last 50 years, as cited by Ahram Online.
She also said that the population growth rate declined by 46% from 2017 to 2023, which equates to a substantial drop in the number of individuals residing in the country.
Drop driven by lower birth and fertility rates
Government officials attribute the demographic shift to a declining birth rate, which dropped from 19.4 births per 1,000 people in 2023 to 18.5 per 1,000 in 2024.
According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt recorded 1.9 million births in 2024 – an average of 164,028 births per month, 5,278 per day, or roughly one birth every second.
That figure represents a 3.8% decrease from 2,045,000 in 2023 and moreover marks the first time since 2007 that annual births fell below two million.
Similarly, the fertility rate, or the average number of children born to a woman during her reproductive years, decreased from 2.54 in 2023 to 2.41 in 2024.
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Family planning, government initiatives play pivotal role
Authorities credit the changes to expanded access to family planning services and the growing number of women entering education and the workforce.
Several government initiatives have likely contributed as well, notably the National Project for the Development of the Egyptian Family, launched in March 2022, which offers an annual E£1,000 incentive to married women with no more than two children.
Other factors include the Etnein Kefaya (Two Are Enough) campaign and the Orsa initiative, both of which provide financial aid to families who successfully practise family planning and aim to educate youth on reproductive health and family planning.
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Economic indicators improve alongside population slowdown
These developments have occurred alongside improved macroeconomic indicators, with Egypt’s gross domestic product growing by 3.5% in Q1 2025, up from 2.7% during the same period last year.
Ghaffar said the situation was a “testament” to the effectiveness of Egypt’s population and economic policies, aimed at balancing demographic trends with sustainable development goals.
Egypt remains the 14th most populous country in the world, with its population rising from 102.8 million in 2021 to 107.2 million in 2025.
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