According to the statement issued on Monday by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), around 9.2 million children in Egypt live in poverty. More than half of them are from Upper Egypt, according to 2012/2013 statistics.
Around 22 million Egyptians were living in poverty in 2012/13, 9.2 million of whom were less than 17 years old, the statement added.
An additional 7.5 million children were vulnerable to etreme poverty, given that their living standards fell between the locally-established poverty lines, i.e. between LE 10.7- LE13.9 per day, according to the statement.
The population whose income falls under the lower poverty line (LE 10.7 per day) is considered as living in extreme poverty.
Poverty rates have been growing continuously in Egypt since 1999 until 2010, with a dramatic increase after 2011. In particular, child poverty increased by 5 percent between 2008 and 2013.
The highest rate of child poverty was found in rural Upper Egypt, where more than half of all children, 4.9 million, were poor.
Child poverty rates were also high in other regions: 11.4 percent in urban Lower Egypt; 17.4 percent (1.8 million) in rural Lower Egypt; and 17.9 percent in the urban governorates (900,000 children).
According to the report, around three quarters of all poor children in the country lived in rural areas. The report also pointed out that between 2009 and 2013, child poverty rates more than doubled in urban governorates.
The report, prepared by CAPMAS in coordination with UNICEF in Egypt, called for effective action to address the phenomenon across the country.
