Historical populations in thousands
Year Pop. ±% p.a.
1882 6,712 —
1897 9,669 +2.46%
1907 11,190 +1.47%
1917 12,718 +1.29%
1927 14,178 +1.09%
1937 15,921 +1.17%
1947 18,967 +1.77%
1960 26,085 +2.48%
1966 30,076 +2.40%
1976 36,626 +1.99%
1986 48,254 +2.80%
1996 59,312 +2.08%
2006 72,798 +2.07%
2013 84,314 +2.12%
2017 94,798 +2.97%
Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East, and the third most populous on the African continent, with about 95 million inhabitants as of 2017.
Its population grew rapidly from 1970 to 2010 due to medical advances and increases in agricultural productivity being enabled by the Green Revolution. Egypt’s population was estimated at 3 million when Napoleon invaded the country in 1798.
Egypt’s people are highly urbanised, being concentrated along the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal.
Egyptians are divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centres and the fellahin, or farmers that reside in rural villages.
While emigration was restricted under Nasser, thousands of Egyptian professionals were dispatched abroad in the context of the Arab Cold War.
Egyptian emigration was liberalised in 1971, under President Sadat, reaching record numbers after the 1973 oil crisis. An estimated 2.7 million Egyptians live abroad.
Approximately 70% of Egyptian migrants live in Arab countries (923,600 in Saudi Arabia, 332,600 in Libya, 226,850 in Jordan, 190,550 in Kuwait with the rest elsewhere in the region) and the remaining 30% reside mostly in Europe and North America (318,000 in the United States, 110,000 in Canada and 90,000 in Italy). The process of migrating to non-Arab states has been ongoing since the 1950s.
