Abstract

Egypt’s population has grown at an unprecedented rate from 39.6 million in 1976 to 106.5 million in 2024. This nearly three-fold increase in population size has had far-reaching negative consequences for human well-being and the natural environment. The expansion is expected to continue in the coming decades to reach 205 million in 2100. In theory, the human impact on nature can be offset by reducing per capita consumption of natural resources, especially in the rich world, and developing green technology. However, in practice, this projected growth will undoubtedly cause further significant damage. The paper discusses two main parts after the introduction: First, it explains the demographic trends and future population projections in Egypt. The second part discusses the status of population and sustainable development in Egypt and the challenges and recommendations for achieving sustainable development.

I. Introduction:

The demographic changes experienced by developing countries are considered among the most important challenges they face, especially with regard to the development of population growth and the shift in the age structure of the population represented by the emergence of what is known as the demographic gift or window, and the implications of this shift on available economic resources and economic behavior, and thus the effects on macroeconomic variables including economic growth, unemployment and productivity. Population growth is considered one of the most important phenomena of demographic challenges, as the population increase that the world has experienced for long periods has led to an increasing doubling of the world's population, which has led to the imposition of great pressures on natural resources, especially for the least developed countries in light of backward economies and the absence of sound economic and population policies, which has resulted in economic problems in these countries that have called for the attention of researchers and economists.
The relationship between population and development is an interactive one. Population is a major axis in economic growth as it is the productive human resource, but unplanned population growth has negative effects, especially on economic characteristics, the most important of which is the increase in consumption by individuals, and thus reducing their savings that they save for investment purposes, which leads to limiting the possibility of raising the level of national income for individuals, as the national income becomes less than its previous rates, which in turn leads to a decrease in the standard of living, and then an increase in state expenditures on basic services such as education, health, transportation, protection, security and housing, as the increase in population leads to a shortage in them and an increase in demand for them so that This consumer spending is at the expense of development expenditures and funds allocated to investment projects such as industry, agriculture and trade, which leads to the depletion of resources, in addition to the spread of the phenomenon of unemployment among individuals, especially among the educated, which leads to the migration of scientific competencies abroad.