There are more than 18 million families living in slums, host Amr Ellaithy said during a speech he delivered in front of UN representatives on Sunday.
Cairo alone has 85 slums, including 68 that require development and 12 that need to be demolished due to security concerns, he said.
According to Ellaithy, studies indicate that 81 percent of the slum dwellers work informally, 20 percent are unemployed and 38 percent of the families receive an income that is less than LE200 a month, which is below the poverty line.
Ellaithy mentioned during his speech on the slums and development of cultural infrastructure in Egyptian society, that the Cairo Demographic Center conducted a study which revealed that the slum population density has reached 128,500 people per kilometer, which is five times the average population density in Cairo.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
