EGYPTIAN AUTHORITIES AIM TO REDUCE THE FERTILITY RATE TO 2 BIRTHS PER FAMILY

The President of Egypt Abdul-Fattah Khalil Al-Sisi expressed concern about the rapidly growing population of the country and indicated that a birthrate of two children per family is enough. In the last thirty years alone, the population has doubled to reach 100 million.

According to experts, the country's currently functioning economy is capable of supporting only 80 million people.

The main problem in the issue of fertility is created by young families in villages, where people have 5 to 15 children, given the early age of marriage.

As for the inhabitants of Cairo of the middle and higher classes, there is an unspoken rule among them - no more than three children in a family.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that the Egyptian authorities have attempted to reduce the birthrate, but up to the moment, there were no decisive measures. At the beginning of the 2000s, there was already a program designed to solve this problem, but neither campaigning nor distribution of contraceptives helped.

Three years ago, a new attempt was made by the authorities, aimed at informing the population about contraception methods and the negative consequences of large families. But this practice did not give visible results: every six months, 1 million babies are born in Egypt.

At the same time, the country's territory for the most part is not intended for life: only 4% of the land is actively used for living, mainly land in the Nile Valley. As for the population, a fifth of it is illiterate, and only 4 million of the country's inhabitants have a higher education.