CAIRO: The number of Egyptians inside and outside the country has risen to more than 76 million, meaning an Egyptian baby is born every 23 seconds, according to official figures released on Tuesday.
General Abu Bakr Al-Guendi, the head of Egypt s centre of statistics, said the number had reached 76.48 million in December 2006, with the native population inside Egypt standing at 72.58 million people.
Out of the figure, 3.9 million Egyptians are living abroad, Guendi told a press conference. The total represented an increase of 24 percent from the last such census carried out a decade ago.
Greater Cairo has the largest concentration, with 18.29 million Egyptians making up a quarter of the overall number.
In Egypt s first census, which was carried out in 1882, the population stood at 6.7 million people.
The size of the average Egyptian family is 4.18 people, down from 4.65 in 1996, according to the new statistics. Some 32 percent are under the age of 15, just over 29 percent are illiterate and unemployment stands at 9.3 percent.
