CAIRO: Egypt's population has risen from 72.8 million in 2006 to 79.6 million in 2010, according to a recent report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. The 7 million increase over 4 years also sees men as 51 percent of the population and the percentage of urban population at 43 percent. The capital, Cairo, has seen an increase of 8.6 million people, compared with 157,000 people in South Sinai governorate, where the population has decreased. The proportion of population density has increased, from 70.6 persons per square kilometer in 2006 to 79.9 persons / km 2 in 2010. Life expectancy has also increased: from 66.5 years in 2006 to 68.2 years in 2010 for males, and from 69.1 years in 2006 to 70.9 years in 2010 for females. Egypt has a totoal labor force of 26.2 million according to the report, which makes 33.4 percent of the total population. Of those, 20.2 million are male and only 6 million are female. Thus, women's participation in the labor force is 23.2 percent. The total unemployment rate is 9 percent. Among women, unemployment is 22.6 percent, while among men it is only 4.9 percent. The birth rate in Eygpt has decreased from 28.3 births per 1,000 people in 1996 to 27.7 births per thousand in 2010. The mortality rate has also decreased, from 6.5 per thousand in 1996 to 6.3 per thousand in 2010. The decreased infant mortality rate reflects improvement in healthcare, according to the report. Infant mortality has decreased significantly, from 63 deaths per thousand live birthday in 1995 to only 25 in 2008. There is also a decreased mortality rate among children under five: from 81 per thousand live births in 1995 to 28 per thousand in 2008. This reveals the attention paid to children through the dissemination and improvement of health services and the provision of vaccinations required for each child, the report said. It added that there is increased awareness of the importance of maternal healthcare for children, particularly after the arrival of services in the poorest areas. There were 408 cases of HIV (AIDS) in 2010, of which 326 were male. There were no cases of malaria of tuberculosis.
