Egypt’s birth rate fell 3.8% in 2024 hitting 17-year low

In 2024, Egypt recorded 1.96 million live births, marking the lowest number in 17 years and a 3.8% decrease from the previous year, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the New Arab reports.

With a population exceeding 117 million, Egypt views this decline as a positive development. The country has been implementing family planning initiatives for decades in an effort to reduce its birth rate.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi highlighted the nation's rapid population growth as a major economic challenge in September 2023. Many of the government’s family planning programs have been concentrated in the ten most impoverished districts, where birth rates are highest.

"Egyptians have started to realise the importance of regulating the growth of the population," said Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli in February.

He believes that maintaining a lower birth rate over the next decade would enhance the quality of life for Egyptians.

While officials credit the decline in birth rates to government initiatives, some analysts suggest that rising living costs and high poverty rates are the main contributing factors.

This trend is consistent with global patterns. The worldwide fertility rate has dropped from 4.84 in 1950 to 2.23 in 2021, and it is expected to continue declining, according to research published in The Lancet.

“What we are experiencing now, and have been experiencing for decades, is something that we have not seen before in human history, which is a large-scale, cross-national, cross-cultural shift towards preferring and having smaller families,” Dr. Jennifer D. Sciubba, a demographer told CNN.

Factors influencing this trend include greater opportunities for women in the workforce, improved access to contraception, and the rising cost of living and raising children.

However, some experts are concerned about the implications of declining birth rates, fearing that countries may face challenges in supporting aging populations due to a shrinking workforce.