Map of Egypt | Geography | People | Government | Economy | Energy | Communication
Military | Transportation | Transnational Issues | Year: Guide198919901991199219931994199519961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024 | More stats

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Background: One of the four great ancient civilizations, Egypt, ruled by powerful pharaohs, bequeathed to Western civilization numerous advances in technology, science, and the arts. For the last two millennia, however, Egypt has served a series of foreign masters_Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, and the British. Formal independence came in 1922, and the remnants of British control ended after World War II. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1981 altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population will stress Egyptian society and resources as it enters the new millenium.


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Location

Geographic coordinates

Map reference

Area

Land boundaries: 2,689 km total; Gaza Strip 11, Israel 255 km, Libya 1,150 km, Sudan 1,273 km

Coastline: 2,450 km

Maritime claims
Contiguous zone: 24 nm
Continental shelf: 200 meters or to depth of exploitation
Extended economic zone: undefined
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters

Terrain: vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta

Elevation

Natural resources: crude oil, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc

Land use: 3% arable land; 2% permanent crops; 0% meadows and pastures; NEGL% forest and woodland; 95% other; includes 5% irrigated

Irrigated land

Major rivers

Major watersheds area km²

Total water withdrawal

Total renewable water resources

Natural hazards

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; size and juxtaposition to Israel establish its major role in Middle Eastern geopolitics


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Population: 54,705,746 (July 1990), growth rate 2.5% (1990)

Nationality: noun--Egyptian(s; adjective--Egyptian

Ethnic groups: 90% Eastern Hamitic stock; 10% Greek, Italian, Syro-Lebanese

Languages: Arabic (official; English and French widely understood by educated classes

Religions: (official estimate) 94% Muslim (mostly Sunni), 6% Coptic Christian and other

Demographic profile

Age structure

Dependency ratios

Median age

Population growth rate

Birth rate: 34 births/1000 population (1990)

Death rate: 10 deaths/1000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: NEGL migrants/1000 population (1990)

Population distribution

Urbanization

Major urban areas

Environment
Current issues: Nile is only perennial water source; increasing soil salinization below Aswan High Dam; hot, driving windstorm called khamsin occurs in spring; water pollution; desertification

Air pollutants

Sex ratio

Mothers mean age at first birth

Maternal mortality ratio

Infant mortality rate: 90 deaths/1000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 60 years male, 61 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate: 4.7 children born/woman (1990)

Contraceptive prevalence rate

Drinking water source

Current health expenditure

Physicians density

Hospital bed density

Sanitation facility access

Hiv/Aids

Major infectious diseases

Obesity adult prevalence rate

Alcohol consumption

Tobacco use

Children under the age of 5 years underweight

Education expenditures

Literacy: 45%

School life expectancy primary to tertiary education

Youth unemployment


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Country name: conventional long form: Arab Republic of Egypt

Government type: republic

Capital: Cairo

Administrative divisions: 26 governorates (muhafazat, singular--muhafazah; Ad Daqahliyah, Al Bahr al Ahmar, Al Buhayrah, Al Fayyum, Al Gharbiyah, Al Iskandariyah, Al Ismailiyah, Al Jizah, Al Minufiyah, Al Minya, Al Qahirah, Al Qalyubiyah, Al Wadi al Jadid, Ash Sharqiyah, As Suways, Aswan, Asyut, Bani Suwayf, Bur Said, Dumyat, Janub Sina, Kafr ash Shaykh, Matruh, Qina, Shamal Sina, Suhaj

Dependent areas

Independence: 28 February 1922 (from UK; formerly United Arab Republic

National holiday: Anniversary of the Revolution, 23 July (1952)

Constitution: 11 September 1971

Legal system: based on English common law, Islamic law, and Napoleonic codes; judicial review by Supreme Court and Council of State (oversees validity of administrative decisions; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

International law organization participation

Citizenship

Suffrage: universal and compulsory at age 18

Executive branch: Chief of State--President Mohammed Hosni MUBARAK (was made acting President on 6 October 1981 upon the assassination of President Sadat and sworn in as President on 14 October 1981; Head of Government--Prime Minister Atef Mohammed Najib SEDKY (since 12 November 1986)

Legislative branch: Army, Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Command

Judicial branch: Supreme Constitutional Court

Political parties and leaders

International organization participation: ACC, AfDB, Arab League, CCC, FAO, G-77, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAC, ICAO, IDA, IDB--Islamic Development Bank, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOOC, IPU, IRC, ITU, IWC--International Wheat Council, NAM, OAPEC, OAU, OIC, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WPC, WSG, WTO; Egypt was suspended from Arab League and OAPEC in April 1979 and readmitted in May 1989

Diplomatic representation
In the us: Ambassador El Sayed Abdel Raouf EL REEDY; Chancery at 2,310 Decatur Place NW, Washington DC 20,008; telephone (202) 232-5,400; there are Egyptian Consulates General in Chicago, Houston, New York, and San Francisco; US--Ambassador Frank G. WISNER; Embassy at 5 Sharia Latin America, Garden City, Cairo (mailing address is FPO New York 9,527; telephone p20o p2o 355-7,371; there is a US Consulate General in Alexandria

Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black with the national emblem (a shield superimposed on a golden eagle facing the hoist side above a scroll bearing the name of the country in Arabic) centered in the white band; similar to the flags of the YAR which has one star, Syria which has two stars, and Iraq which has three stars--all green and five-pointed in a horizontal line centered in the white band

National symbols

National anthem

National heritage


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Economy overview: Egypt has one of the largest public sectors of all the Third World economies, most industrial plants being owned by the government. Overregulation holds back technical modernization and foreign investment. Even so, the economy grew rapidly during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but in 1986 the collapse of world oil prices and an increasingly heavy burden of debt servicing led Egypt to begin negotiations with the IMF for balance-of-payments support. As part of the 1987 agreement with the IMF, the government agreed to institute a reform program to reduce inflation, promote economic growth, and improve its external position. The reforms have been slow in coming, however, and the economy has been largely stagnant for the past three years. With 1 million people being added every eight months to Egypt's population, urban growth exerts enormous pressure on the 5% of the total land area available for agriculture.

Real gdp purchasing power parity

Real gdp growth rate

Real gdp per capita

Gross national saving

Gdp composition by end use

Gdp composition by sector of origin

Agriculture products: accounts for 20% of GNP and employs more than one-third of labor force; dependent on irrigation water from the Nile; world's fifth-largest cotton exporter; other crops produced include rice, corn, wheat, beans, fruit, vegetables; not self-sufficient in food; livestock--cattle, water buffalo, sheep, and goats; annual fish catch about 140,000 metric tons

Industries: textiles, food processing, tourism, chemicals, petroleum, construction, cement, metals

Industrial production growth rate: 2-4% (1989 est.)

Labor force: 15,000,000 (1989 est.), 36% government, public sector enterprises, and armed forces; 34% agriculture; 20% privately owned service and manufacturing enterprises (1984; shortage of skilled labor; 2,500,000 Egyptians work abroad, mostly in Iraq and the Gulf Arab states (1988 est.)

Unemployment rate: 15% (1989 est.)

Youth unemployment

Population below poverty line

Gini index

Household income or consumption by percentage share

Distribution of family income gini index

Budget: revenues $7 billion; expenditures $11.5 billion, including capital expenditures of $4 billion (FY89 est.)

Taxes and other revenues

Public debt

Revenue

Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

Inflation rate consumer prices

Central bank discount rate

Commercial bank prime lending rate

Stock of narrow money

Stock of broad money

Stock of domestic credit

Market value of publicly traded shares

Current account balance

Exports: $2.55 billion (f.o.b., 1989)
Commodities: raw cotton, crude and refined petroleum, cotton yarn, textiles
Partners: US, EC, Japan, Eastern Europe

Imports: $10.1 billion (c.i.f., 1988)
Commodities: foods, machinery and equipment, fertilizers, wood products, durable consumer goods, capital goods
Partners: US, EC, Japan, Eastern Europe

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold

Debt external: $45 billion (December 1989)

Stock of direct foreign investment at home

Stock of direct foreign investment abroad

Exchange rates: Egyptian pounds (LE) per US$1--2.5790 (January 1990), 2.5171 (1989), 2.2128 (1988), 1.5015 (1987), 1.3503 (1986), 1.3010 (1985)


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Electricity
Capacity: 11,273,000 kW capacity; 42,500 million kWh produced, 780 kWh per capita (1989)

Coal

Petroleum

Crude oil

Refined petroleum

Natural gas

Carbon dioxide emissions

Energy consumption per capita


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Telephones

Telephone system

Broadcast media

Internet

Broadband fixed subscriptions


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Military expenditures
Percent of gdp: 7.2% of GDP, or $2.8 billion (FY90 est.)

Military and security forces

Military service age and obligation

Space program

Terrorist groups


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National air transport system

Civil aircraft registration country code prefix

Airports: 97 total, 87 usable; 67 with permanent-surface runways; 2 with runways over 3,659 m; 46 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 21 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Heliports

Pipelines: crude oil, 1,171 km; refined products, 596 km; natural gas, 460 km

Railways

Roadways

Waterways: 3,500 km (including the Nile, Lake Nasser, Alexandria-Cairo Waterway, and numerous smaller canals in the delta; Suez Canal, 193.5 km long (including approaches), used by oceangoing vessels drawing up to 16.1 meters of water

Merchant marine: 142 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 1,141,799 GRT/1,754,181 DWT; includes 1 passenger, 7 short-sea passenger, 2 passenger-cargo, 88 cargo, 2 refrigerated cargo, 13 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 14 petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker, 15 bulk

Ports and terminals


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Disputes international: Administrative Boundary and international boundary with Sudan

Refugees and internally displaced persons

Illicit drugs