In this May 23, 2017 photo, vehicles drive past the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics Headquarters, in Cairo. (AP Photo)
Cairo: Census workers going door to door in Egypt's teeming neighbourhoods and crowded towns are discovering a new country — of more than 20 million people born in the last decade alone.
Family planning efforts have lapsed over the past decade, particularly during the chaotic years following the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Today the government is mainly focused on combatting Islamic militancy and repairing the tattered economy.
But the staggering growth rate in the most populous Arab country, already home to more than 93 million people, could worsen both problems by giving rise to yet another bulging generation with few job prospects and widespread reliance on dwindling government assistance.
"In 10 years, we've made what can be considered an entirely new country," said Hussein Sayed, the co-ordinator of the national census. The results will be finalised and released in August.
Census workers have been travelling the country for months, documenting not only population growth but also household wealth, data that might help the government to better target its costly subsidies for bread, fuel and other basic goods.
They have found that Egypt's population is growing by around two million a year, which would strain resources even if the country were able to stand on its own feet. As it is, Egypt has received billions of dollars in aid from Gulf nations in recent years. When that began to dry up last year, Cairo secured a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to support a package of reforms.