Poverty and Income Distribution
Behind the facade of an affluent nation, Egypt is actually facing high levels of unemployment and immense poverty. The majority of its younger population is struggling with unemployment and destitution, and heightening food prices in Cairo
According to an Associated Press report, nearly half of all Egyptians live under or just above the poverty line. In fact, more than 15 million Egyptians live on less than $1 a day, and the figure is steadily increasing. The Minister of Economic Development, Othman Mohamed Othman, once mentioned that the poverty rate in Egypt had rose from 19 percent of the population in 2005 to 21 percent in 2009.
Various statistical databases show that Egypt has:
· A population of 80 million, with 33 percent who are 14 years and below; and 20 percent of the population living below the poverty line.
· A labor force of 26 million, with 32 percent working in agriculture, 17 percent in industry, and 51 percent in the service sector.
· An unemployment rate of 9.7 percent.
· A literacy rate of above 71 percent, with males at 83 percent and females at 59.4 percent
Read more about this topic: Economy Of Egypt
Famous quotes containing the words poverty and, poverty, income and/or distribution:
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—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“As poverty has been reduced in terms of mere survival, it has become more profound in terms of our way of life.”
—Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934)
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—Anna Eugenia Morgan (1845–1909)
“The question for the country now is how to secure a more equal distribution of property among the people. There can be no republican institutions with vast masses of property permanently in a few hands, and large masses of voters without property.... Let no man get by inheritance, or by will, more than will produce at four per cent interest an income ... of fifteen thousand dollars] per year, or an estate of five hundred thousand dollars.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)