Area and population. – On a land area of 1,001,449 km 2 (of which 59,202 in Asia, including the Gaza area, under trust) the Egypt in 1966 it had a population of 30,083,400 residents, which rose to approximately 36 million according to the 1973 census. The density of 732 residents per km 2 in 1960 it had therefore increased to 845 in 1966 and 1012 in 1973, calculated, of course, on only 35,577 km 2 of inhabited and cultivated territory (Nile valley, delta and oasis).
Egypt is divided into 25 administrative units, between governorates and border territories, in turn grouped in Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt. At the cens. 1966 only two cities had over a million residents, one had between 500,000 and 600,000, another between 300,000 and 400,000 (Imbaba, 341,000 residents, not the capital of the governorate), four between 200,000 and 300,000 (including el Mahalla el-Kubra, 225,323 residents, Not even it capital of the governorate) and, finally, eight had between 100,000 and 200,000 residents In 1971 the capital, Cairo, already had more than 5 million residents, which had risen to 7,000,000 at the end of 1973 (in 1960 there were only 3,446,000), and Alexandria had exceeded one and a half million. This rapid urban growth has affected the whole Egypt, in some centers even explosively: el-Gīza in six years had gone from 250,000 residents to over 571,000; Imbaba, from 136,000 to 341,000; Aswan, from 48,000 to about 128,000.
Economic conditions. – The cultivated area of Egypt Properly speaking in 1964, after the agrarian reforms, it was equal to 10,346,000 fedd ā n (1 fedd ā n = 0.42 ha), of which 4,728,000 for winter crops, 3,874,000 to summer crops and 1,577,000 to autumn crops.
From tab. 2 it is possible to see how the properties of over 100 fedd ā n have disappeared, due to a law of July 1961; how those above 5 fedd ā n decreased and how the total area of properties decreased from 20 to 100 fedd ā n, especially at the expense of those from 50 to 100, as well as those above 100. In the meantime it has developed irrigation. The great reservoir of Aswan, Lake Nāṣer, collects 5.5 billion m 3 of water, to which must be added 2 billion m 3of the reservoir of Gebel Auliyā, completed in 1937. Then there are the dams of Esna, Naǵ‛Ḥammādī, Asyūt, and Zifta and the new dams, replacing those of 1861 (made by Moḥammed ‘Alī), at the fork of the Nile, downstream from Cairo. The Qenā governorate is irrigated with the water derived from Esna, with that of Naǵ‛Hammādī, in 1930, the Girgā area is provided, the one derived from the Asyūt dam, modernized, satisfying many new requests. The effects of these increased irrigation possibilities can also be seen from comparisons in production between 1962 and 1974.
Thus the cotton area, although having reduced to 630,000 ha from 834,000, produced 8.4 million q of seeds and 4.8 million q of fiber, instead of 6.6 million q of seeds and 3.4 million fiber. The same was true for wheat: although with an area reduced to 576,000 ha from 581,000, the harvest gave 19.8 million q, instead of 14.4. For rice, the area and production have more than doubled: from 226,000 to 490,000 ha and from 11.4 to 24 million q. Much higher yields have also been obtained for maize: the area covered by this cereal dropped a little, from 673,000 to 665,000 ha, the harvest rose from 16.7 to 25.5 million q.
The area cultivated with barley was also smaller in 1974 and the harvest was lower: 32,000 ha instead of 51,000 and just under 1 million q instead of 1.3 million. Millet cultivation (in 1974, 8.7 million q from 212,000 ha) and potato (7.5 million q from 44,000 ha, against 3.5 million q from 24,600 ha) are also important in the Egyptian economy. in 1962). In 1972 the sugar cane area was more than double that in 1961 (81,000 ha instead of 40,000) and sugar production more than doubled (from over 3 million to 6.1 million q). Among the oil and fiber plants, in addition to cotton, flax stands out (in 1974, 19,324 ha, 230,000 q of seeds and 159,600 q of fiber; in 1965, 81,000 q of seeds and 100,000 q of fiber were obtained from 11,000 ha.).
The importance of vegetable crops, citrus fruits and some fruits is noteworthy: also in this regard, some comparisons between 1965 and 1974. The tomato, from 80,000 ha with 12.2 million q has increased to 121,000 ha with 16, 3 million q. Beans, 1.5 million q in 1974 instead of 960,000 in 1965. Onions, which in 1965 had yielded 6.9 million q, in 1974 gave only 5.2. As for citrus fruits, from 4 million q it had risen to 8.1 million, including oranges and mandarins, with a slight simultaneous decrease in lemons and other citrus fruits, from 830,000 to 800,000 q.
Between 1961 and 1974, cattle increased from 1.7 to 2.1 million head; buffaloes, from 1.6 to 2.2; sheep, from 1.7 to 2 million; goats from 888,000 to 1,280,000. Camels, on the other hand, decreased from 205,000 to 110,000. Fishing in 1974 yielded 91,200 tons, half from delta waters, compared to 118,000 in 1961.
In the mining sector, the production of phosphates continued, with almost constant quantities (550,000 t in 1973 and 561,000 t in 1961); much decreased that of manganese (54,000 t of Mn in 1960; 9700 t in 1961 and only 1800 in 1971, as a consequence of the events that have affected Egypt on several occasions).
As for the brine, between 1961 and 1972 it dropped from 560,000 to 386,000 t. The increase in the extraction of iron ores is significant: from 120,000 tons of metal contained in 1960 to 320,000 in 1973.
Oil production was negatively affected by the wars with Israel: from 2.6 million tons in 1962 it had gradually reached 6.3 in 1964 and up to 16.6 in 1970, to drop sharply to 11.5 million tons. in 1975. In addition to the two refineries in Suez, two more had been built, in Alexandria and Mustarad. Following the prolonged closure of the Suez Canal in June 1967 and subsequent war events, it was decided to add a new, more capable pipeline between Suez-Cairo-Alexandria to the already existing Suez-Cairo pipeline (130 km). 330 km). Natural gas production should not be overlooked: 71 million m 3 in 1959, 57 in 1973.
The production of electricity has risen sharply: from 4.4 billion kWh in 1964, it had already risen to over 7.1 billion in 1969 and 8.1 billion in 1973, of which 5.1 from water. In the meantime, the installed power rose from 3.8 to 4.1 million kW, of which 2.4 was water. The existing Aswan hydroelectric plant was gradually integrated with the neighboring one of the High Dam. They continued to operate thermal power plants, such as those in Cairo, Alexandria, Naǵ‛Ḥammādī and Damanhur.
The manufacturing industry, which employed 500,000 workers in 1957, had already employed 875,000 workers in 1966 in 4,000 enterprises with no less than 10 employees each. The textile industry is still predominant, which in 1972 had almost reached 179,200 t of cotton yarn and 115,900 t of fabrics.
In that same year, the wool mills produced 12,100 t of yarns and 8,900 t of fabrics, while the production of jute yarns amounted to 26,500 t. Also in 1971, rayon processing yielded 6700 t of fiber and 4900 t of staple (3500 and 5070, respectively, in 1957, and 6100 and 2400, in 1973).
As before, the processing of tobacco, the distillation of alcohol, the milling activity, the manufacture of pasta, the paper industry, the oil mill, the soap factory, the manufacture of beer are important (303,000 hl in 1972, compared to 109,000 in 1958), cement production (3.6 million t in 1975, compared with 1.5 in 1958).
According to Baglib, steel production, from 50,000 tons of average annual production, had gone up to 215,000 tons of cast iron and 195,000 of steel in 1966, and to 250,000 tons of pig iron and 290,000 of steel in 1973. The assembly of motor vehicles (about 8700 cars and trucks, in 1973, against 4100 in 1969). In the chemical industry the production of nitrogen fertilizers has developed, in relation to the greater availability of electricity: 78,800 t in 1973-74, (but 132,000 in 1967-68), as well as that of superphosphates (265,000 t in 1967). In 1973 only 115,000 t of sulfuric acid were produced (260,000 in 1968), 1000 t of nitric acid (but 537,900 in 1967), 14,000 t of caustic soda and 2200 t of hydrochloric acid (7,600 in 1968). The rubber industry manufactured 460,000 tires in 1975 (321.
In the five-year period 1970-74, foreign trade had a sharp increase in imports, from about 342 to 920 million Egyptian pounds (in 1972, one pound = 1435 Italian pounds) and also in exports, from just over 331 to about 593 million, consisting mainly of cotton and its products, rice, fruit, onions, phosphates, manganese, etc. Main suppliers in 1973 were the United States, France, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Soviet Union and, main customers, the Soviet Union and, at a great distance, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Italy, Dem. Rep. Of Germany and Poland. The state railways, from 4339 in 1957 had not increased in 1969 to 4510 km. Even in 1969, macadamized roads reached 25,970 km (19,500 in 1959). There are five international airports: Cairo, Alexandria.
