Cairo, the economic heart of Egypt, has seen its population increase by 2% in one year. This makes the Egyptian capital the sixth most populous city in the world in 2024, just behind Brazil's Sao Paulo.
Demographic growth in Egypt is not about to slow down. Cairo comes sixth in the Top10 most populous cities in the world in 2024. According to a ranking by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) World Population Review, the Egyptian megalopolis currently has a population of 22.6 million, an increase of 440,000 people (22.1 million in 2023) in the space of just one year.
That’s far more than the 19 million Japanese and international residents of Osaka (10th), a city renowned for its maritime transport and air quality. Although Cairo is ahead of Japan’s third-largest city, it has a smaller population than the capital Tokyo (37 million), ranked first by analysts at the World Population Review.
This position will soon be taken by the mythical New Delhi (2nd). At least 33 million people live side by side on a daily basis in the nerve centre of India, where the rural exodus is increasing as a result of new commercial and technological opportunities. In Shanghai (3rd) in China, the demographic explosion of recent years has produced 29 million Chinese and tourists. The latter no longer want to return to their home cities because of the breathtaking buildings and the stability of the financial markets in Shanghai.
How is Cairo adapting?
On a global scale, urban growth and economic challenges (infrastructure needs and access to basic services) are therefore mainly played out in the cities of Asia and North Africa. It’s easy to see why large-scale projects have been multiplying in recent years in the land of the pharaohs. On the transport front, the Egyptian authorities are currently piloting work on the fourth line of the Cairo metro.
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The rail infrastructure, co-financed to the tune of 319 million dollars by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), should serve 2 million people by 2028. The initiative is designed to relieve congestion in the city centre, where traffic and development are virtually impossible. The other spin-off expected from the metro is a reduction in the number of private vehicles, which modern Cairoites have taken a liking to despite the CO2 emissions generated by fuel combustion.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
