Egypt: A newborn every 24 seconds

The chairman of the central bureau for statistics in Egypt, Eyhab Alawi, said on Wednesday in Cairo that Egypt witnesses the birth of one child every 24.5 seconds, representing a slight increase over the situation at the beginning of 1998.

In a press conference, Alawi added that the natural average increase in the population in Egypt, the difference between the mortality and birth rates, reached 2.099 percent in 1998, against 2.08 percent in the year 1996.

He added that the total population in Egypt inside and outside the country, reached 64 million inhabitants (63, 915,319) at the beginning of January 1999.

Alawi added that the number of males represents 51.2% of the Egyptian population against 48.8% females. He added that the number of the population inside Egypt was 62.013 million inhabitants at the beginning of January 1999, against 60.7 million in the first of January, 1998.

The number of Egyptian citizens residing outside the country, including workers outside the country together with their families, was estimated at 1,902 million in the first of January 1999.

Alawi estimated the annual natural increase in Egypt during the year 1998 at 1.287 million, representing 107,290 newborns in every month; 3,527 newborns per day or just one newborn every 24.5 seconds. Alawi attributed the slight increase in the population growth in Egypt to the "decrease in the mortality rate, combined with the increase in age average to 67 years for women and 63 for men, at the meantime, against 61 years for women and 59 years for men in the year 1996."

He stressed that: "The slight increase in the population does not necessarily mean that the family planning programs are not successful. On the contrary, it means that the number of deaths decrease."