Egypt Fights to Stem Population Growth

ABC News (Will Rasmussen)

This is an item about modern Egypt (with thanks to Rhio Barnhart), but although it is slightly off-topic I thought that it might be of interest to some visitors.

Red and white banners along Nile bridges and Cairo streets this month were Egypt's latest effort to curb an increasingly pressing problem: a population growing faster than the economy can support.

Since President Hosni Mubarak took office in 1981, the population has nearly doubled. But most of the country's 76 million people are squashed in urban areas near the Nile, in an area roughly the size of Switzerland, which is home to just 7.5 million.

"Before you add another baby, make sure his needs are secured," ran the slogan, adding to a string of campaigns over 30 years to encourage family planning. Mubarak told a government-sponsored population conference that cutting population growth was urgent.

With about one fifth of the population living on less than $1 a day and food and fuel prices lifting inflation to a 19-year high, discontent is mounting. But beyond domestic concerns, Egypt could become a poster-child for a global trend. Top of Form

According to the United Nations, the poor are set to be more and more numerous by 2050 and many will be living in towns as the world population climbs to a total of 9.2 billion. Essentially all the growth will be in less developed countries.

Egypt -- where the divide between rich and poor is stark and resistance to targeted birth control common -- shows how that could happen.