Cairo - Mubasher: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar announced that Egypt recorded its lowest population growth rate during the first quarter of 2025, compared to the first quarter of 2024 and 2023. This confirms the continued decline in population growth rates nationwide, a significant achievement that reflects the success of government efforts to achieve a balance between population growth and sustainable development.

Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said that the data indicates that the population on January 1, 2023, reached 104.4 million people, rising to 107.2 million people on January 1, 2025. This means that the average annual growth rate during that period reached approximately 1.34%, compared to 1.4% in 2024 and 1.6% in 2023, reflecting a positive shift as a result of the population policies implemented by the state.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population revealed that this decline in the population growth rate coincides with an improvement in economic indicators. The real GDP growth rate during the first quarter of fiscal year 2024/2025 reached 3.5%, compared to 2.7% in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. This supports the state's drive to achieve long-term demographic and economic stability.

Khaled Abdel Ghaffar stressed that this decline in population growth rates was accompanied by a noticeable improvement in demographic characteristics, which included an increase in women's participation in the labor market and education, in addition to a noticeable improvement in demographic indicators, including a reduction in unmet needs rates, through increasing the percentage of comprehensive coverage by doctors in primary health care and family development centers in the governorates, where the coverage rate reached 80% after suffering from a severe shortage in the number of doctors, which amounted to nearly 60%, as well as providing free means for reproductive health and family planning in all government, university and private sector service outlets.

Khaled Abdel Ghaffar noted the support for the use of reproductive health and family planning methods in hospitals immediately after birth, which has reached 80%, along with a policy of focusing on long-term methods to help families make sound, evidence-based choices regarding childbirth and all other aspects of life.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health pointed out that 70% of family counseling centers have been covered, and that trained counselors, including doctors, pharmacists, and dentists, are available to provide psychological, health, and informational support to all mothers and families, starting with premarital counseling, including counseling on preparing for pregnancy, pregnancy care, supporting safe natural birth, and protecting the child's rights to optimal upbringing in the first two years of life. This will ensure optimal care in the first 1,000 days of life and extending to the next 1,000 days, ensuring a successful transition through early childhood.

Khaled Abdel Ghaffar explained that successfully completing the early childhood stage achieves health and mental development for children, which is considered one of the most important achievements in true human development, which His Excellency the President of the Republic and the political leadership are paying intensive attention to. Accordingly, the presidential initiative "Bidaya" was launched for human development, through successful policies for reproductive health and achieving "quality" population balance by paying attention to demographic characteristics so that Egypt can successfully occupy a prominent position, God willing, in the economic growth file that the state seeks to achieve.

For her part, Abla Al-Alfi, Deputy Minister of Health for Family Development and Supervisor of the National Population Council, explained that population clock data showed a clear decline in population growth rates in several governorates during the period from January 2023 to April 2025. Port Said Governorate recorded the lowest population growth rate in the country at 0.61%, making it the first governorate to achieve near-static population growth. This is due to the effective impact of the "Golden Thousand Days" initiative, which was successfully implemented in the governorate, in addition to raising community awareness and enhancing reproductive health services. She added that Cairo Governorate recorded a growth rate of 0.86% during the same period, reflecting the continued implementation of policies regulating population growth in urban areas, along with the expansion of family planning programs and the intensification of awareness campaigns.

She noted that although Upper Egypt governorates still record the highest population growth rates, data indicates a relative improvement in some governorates, such as Sohag, which recorded a growth rate of 1.97%, representing a decline compared to previous years when population growth rates exceeded 2.2%. She attributed this progress to the ambitious population policies implemented by the state under the auspices of His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, most notably the "Golden Thousand Days" presidential initiative, which aims to improve maternal and child health during the critical early stages of a child's life. It is considered one of the most successful interventions in improving demographic characteristics, alongside the National Program for the Development of the Egyptian Family and the National Population and Development Strategy, which enhance families' ability to make informed reproductive decisions while providing an integrated package of health, educational, and awareness services.

Dr. Abla Al-Alfi pointed out that questions may be raised about whether the current decline in the growth rate is the result of a stable cultural shift, or a circumstantial effect resulting from economic conditions that lacks scientific accuracy. She emphasized that the current decline in the population growth rate is the result of a stable cultural shift, and not a circumstantial effect resulting from economic conditions. She emphasized the observation of a relative improvement in citizens' awareness of the population increase issue, especially in light of the well-studied population programs that have been implemented for years, the "Golden Thousand Days" presidential initiative for developing the Egyptian family, the real implementation of the National Population and Development Strategy and its urgent issue, and the governance and monitoring of the file through the National Population Council and the platform established at the Information and Decision Support Center for monitoring and sensitive governance. This is in addition to official media campaigns, family planning programs that have witnessed a science-based expansion, and the real governance of family development centers, with a focus in recent years on raising awareness and skill training on evidence-based choice, which may reinforce the idea that part of the decline reflects a cultural shift, wise planning, and an improvement in the Council's performance. The national population has led to a significant decline, and economic pressures are not the primary factor. History has documented periods in which the reason for population growth was the use of children as a source of livelihood. This has changed significantly with the governance of the education sector, and the elimination of illiteracy and dropout rates, particularly in girls' education.

Concluding her speech, she noted that the National Population Council will launch a media campaign this month to combat child marriage, a phenomenon that was monitored during a study of the population situation in Upper and rural Egypt. The Ministry of Health and Population will also launch the “National Program for the Prevention of Dwarfism and Malnutrition,” in cooperation with all relevant ministries, under the umbrella of the presidential initiatives “Beginning,” “The Golden Thousand Days,” and the urgent plan for population and development, as a culmination of the state’s efforts to improve demographic characteristics, not just reduce the number of births.