The recovery households cannot feel. Egypt's economy grew 4.4% in 2025 and took a record US$47.3B in remittances, while the share of Egyptians who are middle class or above fell from 71.4% in 2020 to 62.0% in 2025. Official population 109 million (CAPMAS, May 2026); GDP US$364.6B; inflation still 20.4% in 2025.
Egypt in 2025 is a US$364.6 billion economy growing at 4.4% in real terms. GDP per capita is US$3,085 in current US dollars and US$20,251 on a PPP basis. The urbanisation share is 42.9%, up from 42.6% in 2015.
Egypt's urban middle class is unusually uniform. Cairo (81.0% of households middle class or above) and Alexandria (80.0%) lead, and Suez at 74.0% is the strongest of the Suez Canal cities. Below those, a long band of governorate capitals — Port Said, Ismailia, Damietta, Sohag, Zagazig, Mansoura, Damanhur, Minya, Beni Suef, Fayoum, Tanta, Kafr El Sheikh and Aswan — sits between 62% and 68%, close enough that middle-class density alone will not separate them. The upper tier is what separates Egyptian cities: 13.0% of Cairo households clear US$15 a day against 2.0% in Asyut. Upper Egypt is the tail, with Asyut at 46.0% middle class or above.
| City | Middle class or above 2025 | Above US$15 a day 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Cairo | 81.0% | 13.0% |
| Alexandria | 80.0% | 12.0% |
| Suez | 74.0% | 9.0% |
| Port Said | 68.0% | 6.0% |
| Asyut | 46.0% | 2.0% |
Both columns are shares of a city's households. Middle class or above means above US$5.50 per person per day (2017 PPP); the second column is the share above US$15 per person per day, which is a subset of the first. Five selected cities of the 39 urban areas we cover in Egypt. Cities are UN functional urban areas (the built-up economic area around a city), not administrative city limits.
August 2026 was the Suez Canal's strongest month since Red Sea disruption began: US$567.1 million in revenue, up 56.7% on August 2025, with 1,358 vessels transiting, up 27%. Remittances hit a record US$47.3 billion in FY2025/26, and the IMF completed the seventh review of Egypt's programme in July 2026. The households beside the canal did not share in it: between 2022 and 2025 the middle-class share fell by 9 percentage points in Suez and 10 points in Port Said and Ismailia, steeper than Cairo's 7-point fall.
Canal revenue and remittances are dollar flows that reach the treasury and the reserves. Household purchasing power is a local-currency question, and the pound has gone from about 15.7 to the dollar in 2020 to about 51 in September 2026. A port city can be busier and poorer at the same time. Note that Egypt's government reported 5.1% growth for fiscal year 2025/26; the 4.4% above is the calendar-2025 figure on the IMF and World Bank basis used throughout this factbook, so the two are not comparable directly.
Pan Africa Data publishes population shares across five fixed-boundary income classes on the 2017 PPP basis: marginalised (below $3.65/day), low ($3.65–5.50), middle ($5.50–15), upper-middle ($15–46.52), and high (above $46.52). The table shows Egypt's national distribution for 2015, 2020, 2024 and 2025. Annual history from 2000 and forecasts to 2035 are in the full dataset.
| Year | Marginalised | Low | Middle | Upper-middle | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7.1% | 16.6% | 61.8% | 14.3% | 0.2% |
| 2020 | 8.7% | 19.9% | 61.9% | 9.4% | 0.2% |
| 2024 | 12.6% | 25.6% | 57.3% | 4.5% | 0.1% |
| 2025 | 12.5% | 25.5% | 57.4% | 4.5% | 0.1% |
Shares only, each class rounded independently, so the columns do not always sum exactly to the combined figures quoted in the text. Pan Africa Data's population series follows World Bank and United Nations estimates so that figures stay comparable across all 54 countries we cover. Egypt's official resident count — 109 million, reached in May 2026 according to CAPMAS — is measured on a different basis and is the figure quoted in the summary above. The shares in this table do not depend on which population total is used.
Gini coefficient in 2025: 28.5.
Every number on this page has been pulled from Pan Africa Data's platform and reconciled against source. Historical population, GDP and inflation come from World Bank World Development Indicators; 2025 estimates draw on the IMF World Economic Outlook (April 2026) and the World Bank Macro Poverty Outlook (April 2026). Urban population share and city envelopes come from UN World Urbanization Prospects 2025. Functional-city populations follow the UN WUP 2025 DEGURBA cluster methodology.
Pan Africa Data's income distribution model is calibrated against the World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform at each country's income-group poverty threshold. Independent validation of the calibration against six African national statistics offices is published at panafricadata.com/validation. Full model methodology is at panafricadata.com/methodology. Model version referenced throughout this factbook is PAD-v1.2-2026.
Suez Canal figures: Suez Canal Authority, reported September 2026. Remittances: Central Bank of Egypt, August 2026. Growth: IMF World Economic Outlook and World Bank; the fiscal-year 2025/26 figure of 5.1% is Egypt's Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, September 2026. Exchange rate: market reporting, September 2026. Egypt's most recent official household income and expenditure survey dates from 2019/20, so figures for later years are modelled estimates.
This page shows 5 of the 39 urban areas and none of the 186 localities we cover in Egypt, as shares only, for 2025. The full dataset has every city and locality across all five income classes, with household and population counts, annually from 2000 with forecasts to 2035, in PPP and USD · API access · free 7-day trial, no card required.