Arab countries anticipate another youth bulge

By Ann Hanna, Newsdesk editor, The Economist

Egypt’s strongman, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, said in 2021 that Egyptians should have “less than one” child per family. He has long been concerned about population growth, a topic that will become ever more pressing from 2025. His country—and several others in the region—are about to enter a second youth bulge. In Egypt the proportion of the population aged 15-24 peaked at just above 20% in 2010, before falling to around 17% in 2020. But the figure is starting to rise again, and will approach 20% by the middle of the 2030s, according to the UN.