Fergany explains that these changes resulted in a decrease in the rate of marriage and an increase in the average age of marriage, both of which affect the number of children each family has, as well as the use of contraceptives. Besides, children do not represent a source of income to these families, as is the case among poorer social strata. We know that the use of contraceptives increases in urban areas and decreases to the lowest levels among the rural poor. In other words, the poor continue to have more children, basically because children are a vital source of income and are the most reliable support mechanism for parents when they grow older. The irony is that those who suffer the most from the ills allegedly resulting from population growth are most responsible for the phenomenon.
Population increase is, simply put, a function of the discrepancy between births and deaths.
Since then, this rate has steadily decreased, ranging around six to seven per 1,000 today. This could explain the rapidity of population growth over the past 200 years. The first available population figures for Egypt indicate that in 1800, Egypt's total population was 2.5 million, a figure that doubled by 1900. It took another 50 years for the population to double once again, from five to 10 million, and only 28 years for it to double yet again. It is easy, however, to get caught up in all these figures and to forget that they are not necessarily objective truths.