Egyptian official warns of overpopulation

The biggest problem facing Egyptian society at the moment is the high population growth and the weak economy, the President of Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), Abu Bakr Al-Jundi warned yesterday.

Al-Jundi said during a seminar organised by the Businessmen Association in Alexandria that the Egyptian population is growing by 2.55 per cent annually or approximately by two million people each year.

According to Al-Jundi, although people are the most valuable resource in any society, this is only if those nations are able to provide education, jobs, housing, clothing and health to them.

“The population growth has to be matched with economic growth and an increase in resources,” he said, pointing out that during the past years, economic growth was much lower than the population growth in Egypt.

Abu Bakr said the latest census revealed that 29 per cent of the total population are illiterate noting that the number has significantly decreased over the past years.