Search

60,000 km2552,50019942011Surface areaInhabitants in 2017National Project for the Development of Sinai (NPDS) and the Peace CanalGeneral Authority for the Development of SinaiSource: CAPMAS, 2017 In 2018, the population of Sinai was far from the 3 million inhabitants foreseen by the NPDS for 2020. With less than 1% of the resident populace, the demographic weight of Sinai is insignificant even though settlement in the south has been noticeable, experiencing a sixfold increase between 1986 and ...

6.9 kgLE 14-16 61%Quantity of cheese consumed per person in in 2013Price of a litre of pasteurised cow’s milk in 2018 (LE 8-9 in 2014)Market share of pasteurised milk held by Juhayna in 2016Sources: Al-Ahram, 2018; FAOSTAT, 2013; FAO, 2017 Although the State has made the supply of grain and vegetable oil a priority, the consumption of milk products attracted the attention of the public authorities in the 2010s because of its role in the nutritional balance of children and in rural and agro-in...

19591999201123 March 2015Nile Waters Agreement between Egypt and SudanNile Basin InitiativeConstruction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance DamDeclaration of Principles between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt The Nile drainage basin, at 3 million km2, covers 12 countries and is the fourth largest in the world. Over a century, Egypt, the furthest downstream country, exercised a hydro-hegemony, imposing a water management programme on the other countries that was favourable to itself. At the beginning...

1942195720062011Legalisation of trade unionsCreation of the Egyptian Trade Union FederationTextile workers strike in Mahalla el-KobraCreation of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions From 1899 to 1907 the initial mobilisations of labour took place through the strikes of cigarette factory workers, most of whom were not Egyptian. The idea of the “strike” spread to Egyptian labour. Workers’ organisations were born at the beginning of the 20th century in connection with the national...

1979Less than 5%353 to 30%Creation of the New Urban Communities AuthorityPercentage of Egyptians living in new townsNew towns in 2019Average occupation rate of new townsSources: NUCA, 2018; Tadamun, 2015; Sims, 2014 In the 1970s, in response to strong demographic growth and urban overpopulation, but also as a means of protecting agricultural land and curbing informal housing, the State began to establish new towns. These initiatives coincided with the infitah* policies and were accompanied by...

68%At 22 years of age87%2017Percentage of the population married in 201745% of women have already had a childPercentage of circumcised women (15-49 years)Itnein Kefaya programme ("Two kids are enough")Sources: CAPMAS, 2017; EHIS, 2015 3.5 Cartoon from Al-Ahram newspaper, 12 June 1979 "Demographic growth. It’s not our fault if medicine is better and kids don’t die any more” 3.6 Marriage in Egypt in 2017 Fertility: complex issues The baby boom that has occurred since 2010 has reignited a rat...

242,000190719792005Number of inhabitants of Luxor in 2017Inauguration of the Winter Palace HotelAncient Thebes listed as a world heritage site by UNESCOExcavation of the Avenue of Sphinxes (Luxor Master Plan 2030)Source: CAPMAS Located in Upper Egypt, more than 600 km from Cairo, the medium-sized town of Luxor has been an international tourist destination since the end of the 19th century and the birth of Egyptology. In 2009 it became capital of the eponymous governorate, covering the modest ...

194531%13,000,0005 piastres*System of food subsidies decreedPercentage of adults qualified as obese in 2015-2017Number of people in 2018 without a bread ration card despite being entitled to onePrice per loaf of baladi flat bread since 1989Source: FAO, 2015-2017 While Egypt may be the “gift of the Nile”, it has paradoxically become an agricultural country faced with a chronic problem of food dependency. In 2016 scarcely 48% of the country’s wheat needs were covered by local production. As the...

40% of GDP45-70%19712015Created by the informal economy in 2018Percentage of jobs estimated to be provided by the informal sectorSadat re-establishes the Ministry of Military ProductionCreation of the Military Production Company for Engineering ProjectsSources: African Development Bank, 2012; Ministry of Planning; Reuters, 2018 Whatever the official figures may say, the Egyptian economy has two particular features: the extent of the “informal” economy, which is typical of a developing country...

19741997200220052015First establishment of free zonesLaw regarding public free zonesCreation of two Special Economic Zones (SEZ)Creation of Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ)The Suez Canal zone becomes a ZES A free zone (FZ) is a defined perimeter in which businesses are exempt from the standard operational regime in matters of customs and taxation. In return the State expects that the accredited companies will assist in the increase of national exports, the creation of employment, and the div...

9,470,000197120042016Egyptians abroad in 2017Right to emigrate written into the constitutionFour Freedoms Agreement* between Egypt and SudanLaw no. 82 against illegal migration and immigrant trafficking Given its large population, Egypt is a country of considerable emigration, with a sizable diaspora. It is also, like its North African neighbours, a temporary and permanent destination State, far from the simplistic image of a “transit zone” that the public authorities insist on maintaining. T...

192819481966197714 August 2013Creation of the Muslim BrotherhoodAssassination of Prime Minister El-NokrashiSayyid Qutb hangedFoundation of Da’wa SalafiyyaCrushing of Rabaa Square protest Egypt, historic home of the Muslim Brotherhood “The Prophet is our guide, the Quran is our constitution, Jihad is our way and martyrdom our greatest hope.” (motto of the Muslim Brotherhood) The Muslim Brotherhood (jamaat al-ikhwan al-muslimin), one of the most influential Islamist organisations of the 20th ce...

283 BC19872002Foundation of the Library by Ptolemy IUNESCO calls for the renaissance of the Library of AlexandriaInauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina On the Corniche between the sea and the university, like a solar disc – emblem of the god Amun – inclining towards the shore, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina has become one of the landmarks of Alexandria’s city centre. It stands close to the presumed site of the ancient library in the Eastern Harbour where the Royal Quarter of the Ptolemies w...

19322000201433.5%Primary school obligatory for girlsKhula procedure written into personal status lawsLaw criminalising sexual harassmentPercentage of women over 10 years of age who were illiterate in 2017Source: CAPMAS Women’s rights remain a subject of debate due to the continued existence of inegalitarian laws and discriminatory practices in both the private and public sphere. Demands for the equality of social and political rights for women began at the end of the 19th and beginning of the...

54,000,0001952199225%Rural population in 2017Agrarian reform and the Green RevolutionLiberalisation of the land market (Law no. 96)Percentage of working people engaged in agriculture and fishing in 2016Sources: CAPMAS, 2016 et 2017 With a rural population accounting for 58% of the total in 2017, Egypt retains a strong village and peasant identity (11.9% of GDP in 2016) despite the encroachment on the countryside of multi-storeyed red brick constructions and despite the official definition of ...

63%200875%Percentage of inhabitants of Greater Cairo living in “informal” districts in 2010119 killed in a landslide at Duweiqa, Manshiat NasserPercentage of Egypt’s built environment in the “unplanned sector”Sources : ISDF, 2013 ; Sims, 2010 The increase in so-called informal or ashwaiyyat* (lit. “random”) districts followed the urbanisation curve throughout the 20th century. This tendency has not been reversed since the Informal Settlements Development Fund (ISDF), a governmental agency cre...

6,500,00013th8.6 %1,394 inhabitant/km2Number of inhabitants in 1882most populous country in the world in 2017of national territory home to the resident population in 2017Average density of the inhabited area in 2018Source: CAPMAS As a result of the significant demographic growth that Egypt experienced during the second half of the 20th century the population will soon exceed 100 million. Egypt is the third most populous country in Africa after Nigeria and Ethiopia. Despite an average density ...

94,790,0003.5 + 2,000,000 32.8% 130,000,000Number of inhabitants in 2017Number of children per mother in 2017Population growth per year between 2010 and 2017Percentage of inhabitants aged from 15 to 34 years in 2017Expected population in 2030Source: CAPMAS, 2017 At the end of the 19th century Egypt had a population of less than ten million. In 1947 the country held 19 million, evidence of moderate demographic growth. Since the 1950s the pace has increased with a growth rate varying between 2%...

19%1060.33 m223.4 ºCPercentage of urban households with an air-conditioning unit in 2015Deaths in August 2015 (high of 47° C)Area of green space per inhabitant in 2009 (WHO recommended minimum 9 m2)Average annual temperatureSources: CAPMAS, 2016; Amer Hegazy, Attia, 2009; Meteoblue; Al-Arabiya While an atlas would ordinarily correlate the climate of a town with its topography, urban growth and contemporary lifestyles complicate the meteorological picture of Cairo. The density and sprawl have ...

8th-7th century BC189919702014The Kingdom of Kush rules EgyptAdministrative frontier divides Nubia between Egypt and the SudanLand submerged by the filling of Lake NasserNubian right of return mentioned in the constitution The Nubian people constitute an ethno-linguistic minority of roughly 100,000 speakers in Egypt who use a language of the Nilo-Saharan family among themselves, as well as Arabic as a lingua franca. They are the descendants of a specific civilisation that dates back to Ancien...

11,736 hectares per annum196183%2017Average annual loss of agricultural land in EgyptFirst law protecting agricultural landPercentage of Cairo’s informal housing on fertile landLand recovery campaignSources: Attia, 2011; Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction, 1977; Sims, 2010 As a result of demographic growth and in response to a need for housing as much as any movement to invest in real estate, urban expansion is threatening the already rare arable lands, and raising the threat of their imm...

2015700 km26,500,000$45 billionJanuary 2019The project is launchedProposed surface areaExpected inhabitantsCost of the first phaseInauguration of the cathedral and great mosque During a conference on Egypt’s economic development held at Sharm el-Sheikh in March 2015 President Sisi announced the launch of the New Administrative Capital, to be built some 45 km east of Cairo. This creation ex-nihilo in the desert, mid-way between Cairo and the Red Sea, is one of the great national construction p...

1867187126 January 1952January-February 201124 November 2011Beginning of the new city centre developmentQasr el-Nil bridge completedCairo fire of “Black Saturday”Occupation of Tahrir SquareFirst wall erected on Mohamed Mahmoud Street A "façade à l’Européenne" (A. Raymond) The downtown area of Cairo (Wust el-Balad) was developed at the end of the 19th century at the initiative of Khedive Ismail. On his return from France where he had met Baron Haussmann, the khedive set about transforming Cair...

24%48%1/5Mid-19th centuryilliteracy among the over ten-year-olds in 2017of children in education in 2017 are girls (except university)of those enrolled (6-20 years) drop out of schoolRifa’a Tahtawi promotes the education of girlsSource: CAPMAS, 2017 Education, a pillar of modern Egypt From the 1920s education constituted one of the major issues of “independent” Egypt. The education sector was there to serve nation building and the creation of the citizen. Schooling advanced at a different pac...

200811032015Creation of the Informal Settlements Development Fund (ISDF)"Informal" markets officially recorded in 2015Beginning of the programme to close down “informal” marketsSource: ISDF Min al-ebra lil saroukh (from a needle to a missile). The expression used by vendors and shoppers at Souq el-Khamis (the Thursday Market) in Matariya to the north-east of Cairo captures the importance of street markets for the customers from a huge low-income neighbourhood. Despite the diversification of s...

16%40%2017Percentage of adults suffering from diabetes in 2017Percentage of deaths caused by cardio-vascular disease in 2016Adoption of the Universal Health Care ActSources: CAPMAS; International Diabetes Federation; WHO While Egypt can boast a very satisfactory level of vaccination coverage, the country is notable for widespread nicotine addiction, hepatitis C and diabetes, as well as a record prevalence of obesity. A largely sedentary life style, unbalanced nutrition emphasising quantity, s...

19561963-1964199520052013Displaced persons due to the Suez WarFlow of displaced persons from NubiaEnd of free movement between Egypt and SudanSudanese sit-in in Mustafa Mahmoud ParkEntry visas for Syrians For several decades Cairo has been on the receiving end of forced movements, whether displaced persons from Upper Egypt and from the Suez War or refugees fleeing crises in the Middle East and Africa (Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqis, Somalis, Yemenis, Eritreans etc.). For these people, temporar...

195685%20082018Creation of the Egyptian General Petroleum CompanyPercentage of electricity production from hydrocarbons in 2015Cooperation agreement with Russia to develop civil nuclear powerExploitation of the Zohr gas fieldSources : IRENA Egypt possesses sizeable hydrocarbon resources but cannot compare with the main international producers. The country is very dependent on hydrocarbons for electricity production, since the role played by hydroelectricity has shrunk: 7% in 2016 as against m...

1805195319701981Mohamed Ali becomes viceroyProclamation of the RepublicDeath of Nasser Sadat succeeds as presidentAssassination of Sadat Mubarak becomes president The bright promise of the 19th century In 1801 Mohamed Ali landed in Egypt with the Ottoman forces sent to combat the French troops of the Egyptian Expedition. The country was then a province of the Ottoman Empire. Once elevated to the position of viceroy, Mohamed Ali launched a modernisation programme that transformed the country i...

80,000,000 tons1980s20072018Waste produced per year in EgyptIntroduction of first recycling machinesExport tax levied on ground plasticChinese regulation on the import of secondary raw materialsSource: Ministry of the Environment in Economic Newsletter, January 2019 The rate of waste recycling in Egypt is remarkable given the lack of investment in this area by public authorities. Salvage, re-use and recycling practices fuel a real economy that is plugged into global networks. This economy is ...

18591968-19701976-20025.4 million TEUBuilding of Port Said beginsIsraeli bombardment and evacuation of the towns (the War of Attrition)Port Said declared a "free zone"Capacity of Port Said container terminal 5.13 Palestine Street, Port Said, 2017 © Karine Bennafla 5.14 New town Suez after 1975, 2018 © Nora Guigues Although less than three hours distant by car from Cairo, the canal cities are very different from other population centres of the Valley and the Delta. The trio of Port Said, Sue...

19th century 47.6%68%Transition from recessional agriculture to perennial irrigationPercentage of the Egyptian population living in the Delta in 2017 (not counting Cairo or the Canal cities)Percentage of national agricultural production from the DeltaSource: CAPMAS The Nile Delta is Egypt’s principle zone for agricultural production and the country’s economic engine. Nonetheless, this region, crisscrossed by multiple canals and hemmed in to the north by lakes (buhayrat), has suffered the nega...

The project There are a number of reasons for the creation of this atlas: first and foremost, to fill a gap. As far as we are aware, no contemporary atlas of Egypt exists, whereas there are several atlases of historic and ancient Egypt, and archaeologists have produced substantial cartographic coverage. This gap is somewhat surprising given the fascination that this country holds over orientalists and tourists alike, and it is most probably due to the administrative division and the linear la...

24,400,0001979198720082020Number of inhabitants in 2018Old Cairo registered by UNESCO as World Heritage SiteFirst metro line from Helwan to El-MargLaunch of "Cairo 2050" strategyPlanned opening of the Grand Egyptian MuseumSource: CAPMAS Cairo, the largest city of the Arab world and the African continent, is home to almost a quarter of all Egyptians. In the past 25 years its population has doubled and its surface area has tripled. The number of inhabitants in the megacity will exceed 30 millio...

23,000 tons247.8 kg65%Garbage produced per day in 2013 (Greater Cairo)Garbage produced per year per inhabitant in 2014 (Egypt)Percentage of rubbish collected in Greater Cairo in 2013 The collection of rubbish in Cairo has been in the hands of rag-pickers since at least the 16th century. During the 19th century it became the preserve of wahiya, people from the oases who had migrated to the capital. They were gradually replaced from the 1930s by the zabbaleen*, mostly Coptic Christians original...

4th century BC192828,000250,0002002Alexander the Great visits the temple of AmunKing Fuad visits the oasisInhabitants of the oasis in 2017Number of date palmsSiwa classified as a protected zoneSources: Battesti, 2013; CAPMAS, 2017; Fakhry 1973 Situated roughly 50 km from the border with Libyan and 300 km from the Mediterranean coast, Siwa is the most westerly and northerly oasis of the Western Desert. It is the furthest eastern outpost of the Tamazgha, the lands traditionally inhabited by the...

194219561962June 2018Creation of the National Feminist Party (NFP)Women participate in the constitutional referendumFirst female minister, Hikmat Abu ZaydWomen account for 20% of cabinet ministers Female representation in political institutions has occurred gradually. The right to vote was granted in 1952, and the eligibility to stand in legislative elections in 1956. These developments were the results of women’s activism in the 1920s and 1940s as embodied by Huda Sharawi, Safia Zaghloul and ...

1897201429525First cinema theatre opens in AlexandriaOpening of Zawya art-house cinemaNumber of cinemas in Egypt, equalling four for every one million inhabitants in 2017Films and 48 productions (including TV series) in 2017Sources: Elcinema and IMDb, 2017; North Western University in Qatar, 2016; Shafik, 2007 A once renowned industry Under the monarchy Egypt developed a vibrant film industry and became a world leader in terms of production, particularly from the 1950s to the 1970s. Studio Mi...

While several atlases of Ancient Egypt exist, no atlas of contemporary Egypt has yet been published. Thus, this work fills a void and offers the general public an illustrated panorama of Egypt at the beginning of the 21st century. Through the contributions of some fifty researchers, it presents in an accessible form the key facts and challenges that concern present-day Egypt in the realms of politics, economics, demographics, the environment, society and culture, and geopolitics. To this end, the Atlas relies on a wide array of previously unpublished sources, most especially maps, which help to unlock and interpret the results of the official Egyptian census of 2017, providing an up-to-date view of the country and a better understanding of Egypt today.

1st January25 March26 July29 October5 NovemberEnd of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium of the SudanClosure of the British base at MoascarNationalisation of the Suez CanalIsraeli invasion of the SinaiLanding of Franco-British forces 1956 was a crucial year in the contemporary history of the country. It featured the adoption of a new constitution by referendum, during which women voted for the very first time, Gamal Abdel Nasser’s accession to the presidency, the withdrawal of the last British tro...

5,000,0001981-1985October 2011August 2016Official number of Christians: the Church claims three times as manySuspension of Pope Shenouda IIIMaspero Massacre* (Cairo)Adoption of a law designed to facilitate the construction of churchesSource: CAPMAS, 2017 The terms Copt and Coptic, originate from the Greek Aegyptios (qibti in Arabic, pl. aqbat), meaning “Egyptian”. They refer to the indigenous Christian community of Egypt, a religious rite and a language, now dead. The Copts represent the larg...

9691930338,38718,140Construction of Al-Azhar mosqueUniversity status accordedNumber of students in 2016 of whom 5% were foreignNumber of lecturers in 2016 The leading religious authority in the Sunni world Al-Azhar mosque, founded by the Fatimids, was initially intended to spread the religion of the Shiite state. The first classes, teaching Ismaili jurisprudence, were given in 975, establishing the institution’s role as a disseminator of religious knowledge. The mosque was closed during the A...

1/38,400,000 tons1,500,000 hectares4% of national territoryShare of cultivated land in winter under wheatWheat production in 2017Reclaimed landAgricultural landSources: CAPMAS; FAO; MAAF, 2015 Given the very reduced surface area of workable farmland, Egypt’s agricultural policies since the 1950s have regularly featured expansion projects into the desert margins on either side of the Nile, in the oases and on the Sinai Peninsula. The greening of the desert has become a national imperative, mad...

18691967-1982197919962018Opening of the Suez CanalIsraeli occupationReturn of Taba to Egypt by the ICJSharm al-Sheikh “Summit of Peacemakers”Antiterrorist operations in the Sinai 2018 The Sinai desert was historically the frontier territory between Egypt, Bilad al-Sham and Arabia, a transit zone which until the 19th century was crossed by the pilgrimage caravan route to Mecca: control by the central power was then only partial. All that would change with the opening of the Suez Canal, which i...

26.8%34%25 years2016of the population between 15 and 29 years of age in 2017of 15-24 year-olds unemployed in 2017minimum age for candidates in parliamentary elections since 2012“Year of Egyptian Youth” declared by President SisiSources: World Bank; CAPMAS Youth can be defined in different ways: the UN proposes the 15-24 year-old age group; for CAPMAS it is 15-29 years: the Mubarak housing programme for youth (2000) was aimed at 25-40 year-olds. Aside from any restricted statistical approach, ...

5,200,0002006362012Number of inhabitants in 2018Law no.144 for the protection of heritage dating from the 19th and 20th centuriesNumber of public buildings demolished in Alexandria since 2011Creation of the Save Alex pressure groupSources: CAPMAS; Save Alex Association Alexandria, the second city of Egypt since the mid-19th century, sits on a thin coastal strip west of the Nile Delta, hemmed in to the south by Lake Mariout. While the town can longer be considered one of the major ports of the...

90,0004431959-196719971999-2015Population of Kharga in 2017Private wells in KhargaNew Valley ProjectToshka ProjectRestoration of the temple of HibisSource: CAPMAS, 2017; Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation/Sagaci Research Egypt has six large inhabited oases west of the Nile: Siwa, Fayoum, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga. Their appearance is a result of climatic changes some 5,000 years ago. At that time the Sahara experienced the beginning of a marked process of aridification and ...

1952-19661967-19731974-19851991November 2016Socialisation of the economyWar economyInfitah* policiesEconomic reform and structural adjustment programmeFloating of the pound and IMF loan of $12 billion Egypt is an emerging economy with relatively volatile growth. The economy suffers from internal and external structural imbalances such that it is growing but below its potential. A dominant services sector Egyptian growth is primarily based upon the success of the services sector (55% of GDP in...

1978April 201120152018Foundation of the NDP by SadatNDP dissolvedFormation of the Support Egypt parliamentary coalitionOnly one competing candidate permitted in the presidential election The National Democratic Party (NDP), which succeeded Nasser’s Arab Socialist Union (ASU), dominated political life for three decades. Positioned at the very heart of the cronyism developed by Mubarak, it was an essential cog in the authoritarian regime. From one-party State to a pluralist party political worl...

Introduction Confronter un dispositif national de lutte contre le décrochage scolaire au niveau territorial est primordial. En effet, pour la plupart des chercheurs travaillant sur la question (Douillet & Lefebvre, 2017), notamment depuis les lois de décentralisation, penser le développement de l’agenda politique local (Muller, 1990) est important pour comprendre quels sont les rapports sociaux à l’œuvre, en dehors des injonctions nationales. Indéniablement, l’atelier relais fait partie de ce...