Background: Nominally independent from the UK in 1922, Egypt
acquired full sovereignty following World War II. The completion of the
Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the
time-honored place of the Nile river in the agriculture and ecology of
Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the largest in the Arab world),
limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax
resources and stress society. The government has struggled to ready the
economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive
investment in communications and physical infrastructure.
Government type: republic
Capital: Cairo
Currency: 1 Egyptian pound = 100 piasters
Geography of Egypt
Location: Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and
the Gaza Strip
Geographic coordinates: 27 00 N, 30 00 E
Area:
total: 1,001,450 sq km
land: 995,450 sq km
water: 6,000 sq km
Land boundaries:
total: 2,689 km
border countries: Gaza Strip 11 km, Israel 255 km, Libya 1,150 km, Sudan 1,273 km
Coastline: 2,450 km
Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 24 nm
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters
Terrain: vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Qattara Depression -133 m
highest point: Mount Catherine 2,629 m
Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese,
limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc
Land use:
arable land: 2%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 0%
forests and woodland: 0%
other: 98% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 32,460 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: periodic droughts; frequent earthquakes, flash floods,
landslides, volcanic activity; hot, driving windstorm called khamsin occurs in spring;
dust storms, sandstorms
Environment - current issues: agricultural land being lost to
urbanization and windblown sands; increasing soil salination below Aswan
High Dam; desertification; oil pollution threatening coral reefs, beaches,
and marine habitats; other water pollution from agricultural pesticides, raw
sewage, and industrial effluents; very limited natural fresh water resources
away from the Nile which is the only perennial water source; rapid growth in
population overstraining natural resources.
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: controls Sinai Peninsula, only land bridge between
Africa and remainder of Eastern Hemisphere; controls Suez Canal, shortest
sea link between Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea; size, and juxtaposition
to Israel, establish its major role in Middle Eastern geopolitics;
dependence on upstream neighbors; dominance of Nile basin issues; prone to
influxes of refugees.
More Geography
People of Egypt
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 69 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 3,820 persons per square mile
(1,540 per sq. km.), as compared to 181 persons per sq. mi. for the
country as a whole.
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 (southern) Egypt.
The literacy rate is about 51% of the adult population. Education is
free through university and compulsory from ages six through 15. Rates for
primary and secondary education have strengthened in recent years.
Ninety-three percent of children enter primary school and about
one-quarter drop out after the sixth year; in 1994-95, 87% entered primary
school and about half dropped out after the sixth year.
Population: 77,505,756 (July 2005 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 34.59%
15-64 years: 61.6%
65 years and over: 3.81%
Population growth rate: 1.69%
Birth rate: 24.89 births/1,000 population
Death rate: 7.7 deaths/1,000 population
Net migration rate: -0.24 migrant(s)/1,000 population
Infant mortality rate: 60.46 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 63.69 years
male: 61.62 years
female: 65.85 years
Total fertility rate: 3.07 children born/woman
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%, Coptic Christian and other 6%
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.)
SOURCES: The World Factbook, U.S. Department of State |