Egypt Demographics 1947
Surface. – From 1 February 1958 it constitutes one of the two regions (Egyptian region) of the United Arab Republic (see below).
The total land area of Egypt it is 1,230,000 km 2 (of which about 60,000 are in Asia; the Gaza area, under trusteeship, measures 202 km 2 and has about 310,000 residents); it is now divided administratively (see table) into five governorates, seventeen provinces (of which three: Kafr el Cheich, Sohâg and Luxor, recently established) and six border districts.
Population. – Almost all of it is concentrated on the 34,815 km 2 that make up the cultivated area, corresponding to the governorates and the provinces. From 19,090,448 residents in the 1947 census, the population had risen in 1953, according to an estimate, to 22,164,000 residents, and in the 1957 census it was ascertained at 22,997,000, which a new estimate raised to about 25,625,000 at the end of 1959. Yes therefore it has a very significant annual increase; in 1952, a birth rate of 45.10% was matched by a death rate of 17.7 ‰, with an active demographic balance of 27.4 ‰. In 1953, for example, there were as many as 934,830 births and only 429,997 deaths.
At the 1947 census 91.5% of the population was formed by Muslims, 7.9% by Christians (Orthodox Copts, Protestant Copts, Catholic Copts, other Orthodox, Roman Catholics, other Protestants) and 0.34% from Israelites. The Coptic Catholics were just under 73,000 and the Roman Catholics just over 50,000. Also at the 1947 census there were about 146,000 foreigners. In 1956, before the exodus of Europeans began following the events for the Suez Canal, there were 25,000 Italians.
According to the results of the 1947 census it had increased to 19,090,448 residents, including 50,000 nomads, distributed in the provinces as shown in the table.
Other important cities include Fayyūm (pop.72,465, Asyūṭ (pop.88.730), Suez (pop.108.250), el-Gīzah (pop.66.213), Rosetta (pop.28.698), Aswan (pop.25.397), etc. Overall, the increase was equivalent to 14% per year, births are also increasing from over 650,000 in 1942 to over 785,000 in 1945, but mortality is also slightly increasing (almost 500,000 and 512,000).
Economic conditions . – According to smber, agriculture remains the basis of the Egyptian economy which has not structurally changed in the last decade. The agricultural population constitutes over 60% of the total; according to data from 1945, 34% of the agricultural area belongs to properties with an area of less than 2 ha. and over 35% to those with a surface greater than 20 ha. Among the owners they are in absolute prevalence (94% / those of plots with surface less than 2 ha.
The main crop is cotton (in 1945-46 413.000 ha. With 2.346.000 q.), Reduced during the war in favor of cereal crops, but already in a notable recovery; wheat follows (692,000 ha. and 11,821,000 q. in 1945); corn (789.000 ha. and 16.973.000 q.), consumed in particular by the rural population and workers. This is followed by barley (151,000 ha. And 2,616,000 q.), Rice (265,000 ha. And 8,568,000 q.), Etc. Remarkable still sugar cane (40,000 ha.) In crisis of overproduction (almost 2 million q.) In 1945-46 and horticultural crops. Livestock farming and mineral resources, among which phosphates and oil predominate, do not have a particular development.
The trade is active, as the following data show (in millions of Egyptian pounds, excluding gold, silver and trade with the Südān):
Finance. – The state of war has not significantly affected the country’s financial structure; on the contrary, from 1940 to 1945 the businesses closed with a slight surplus.
The public debt, except for a peak in 1943 which reached 106.7 million Egyptian pounds, remained stationary at 92 million. Until 1943 it consisted almost exclusively of foreign debt (89.7 million), but in September of that year the foreign debt was redeemed and converted into a national loan. Financial relations with Great Britain were substantially transformed, as Egypt, at the end of the war, was the creditor of Great Britain, for various supplies and services, of balances accumulated in pounds of 450 million pounds.
The war considerably inflated the fiduciary circulation which increased by 576%, passing from 20.4 million Egyptian pounds in 1938 to 138 million at 31 December 1947; at that date the authorized issue was 145 million covered 4.4% by gold and the remaining 95.6% by Egyptian and British government bonds.
With July 15, 1947, on the basis of a financial agreement with Great Britain for a first and provisional settlement of the accumulated balances in sterling, Egypt left the sterling area. In 1947 the government announced its intention to nationalize the National Bank of Egypt.
Egypt is part of the Bretton Woods Institutes with a share which in September 1947 was raised from 45 to 60 million dollars for the Monetary Fund and from 40 to 53 million for the World Bank.
Communications. – The railway lines managed by the state had in 1957 the development of 4339 km, to which 1377 km of private lines for agricultural purposes had to be added. Roadways reached 15,623 km in the same year, of which 3102 to macadam. At December 31, 1958, about 104,000 vehicles were circulating in Egypt, of which almost 75,000 were cars. The Egyptian merchant navy had a tonnage of just over 220,000 tons in 1958. The Cairo airport, the most important in the country, had a movement of 253,765 passengers in 1956, between arrivals and departures.
