Young people's desire to leave Egypt has not changed much since the days of Hosni Mubarak, according to a poll by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).
The poll says 17.2 percent of young people in the age group of 15 to 29 years want to emigrate from Egypt, compared to 18.3 percent in 2009.
The CAPMAS poll also showed that many more young men prefer to leave than women, with 25.8 percent of Egyptian males in the age group of 18 to 24 years saying they hope to leave, versus 7.8 percent of Egyptian females.
Of those asked, holders of a university degree were more likely to want to leave Egypt, with 30.3 percent versus 17.2 percent for the less educated.
The rate of rural population was 28.3 percent versus 23.3 percent in urban areas, with 16.2 percent in shantytowns.
The respondants in the poll said their first reason for emigration was in search of economic conditions, followed by the security situation.
The destinations they wanted to emigrate to were mainly Arab countries, according to 48.8 percent of respondants, especially Saudi Arabia, followed by Western countries, at 12.5 percent.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
