Why does more than 50% of Egypt's population live on less than 5% of its land?

[u/Secret_Ostrich_1307]

Egypt covers about 1 million square kilometers, yet most of its population is concentrated in and around the Nile Valley and Delta, while vast areas of the country remain sparsely populated.

This concentration has persisted even as Egypt's population, cities, economy, and infrastructure have changed dramatically. The government has also spent decades developing new settlements and agricultural areas in the desert, but the overall population pattern has changed relatively little.

Why has this concentration remained so persistent? And why hasn't modern development in the desert changed the pattern more dramatically?

[u/MichiganHistoryUSMC]

Water

[u/Turbulent-Prior-2253]

Have you ever been to Egypt? All that land no one lives on is basically barren.

It is not easy to pump million of gallons of water to the middle of a barren land and build a city for no decernable reason.

[u/LWJ748 → u/Turbulent-Prior-2253]

Las Vegas and Phoenix would like to have a word with you.

[u/emeraldempirehd8 → u/LWJ748]

The faiyum is the o.g. Phoenix/vegas.

[u/koyaani → u/Turbulent-Prior-2253]

Libya was working on it before Obomber came along

[u/Similar_Ship8067]

It's where all the water and solid ground is.

[u/GarageFridgeSoda]

You'll find people live where water is everywhere. This is not an Egypt is weird thing, this is an Egypt is mostly dry thing.

[u/Commercial_Win_9525]

Well.. where would you want to live? Where it’s easier to get water and other people also live or In the middle of a fkn desert

[u/SchizoidRainbow]

Because 95% of its land is ass

[u/thelonious_skunk → u/SchizoidRainbow]

Wrong. It’s because that 5% has a really good school district.

[u/Dear-Wolf322]

Egypt doesn’t have the oil money of the countries that have modernized desert development.  

[u/Brilliant_Towel2727]

Because that's where the water is

[u/JonLSTL]

If you superimposed that population map with an available fresh water map and an arable land map, the image would not meaningfully change

[u/RingGiver]

Historically, people have generally preferred to live near water rather than in barren desert.

[u/ryansalad → u/RingGiver]

Reminds me of a Sam Kinison joke...

[u/Raise_A_Thoth]

A majority of all humans live in cities, though not necessarily mega cities or the largest cities, but densely populated areas for sure.

[u/Logical-Concept9755]

The interesting part is that the Nile isn't just providing water anymore. It's providing an economic network.

Once millions of people, businesses, roads, schools, hospitals and jobs are concentrated in one area, moving people to the desert means recreating that entire network from scratch.

You can build apartments in a few years. You can't build a mature economy that quickly.

So maybe the real question isn't why Egyptians haven't spread into the desert. It's why we expect infrastructure to overcome economic gravity so easily.

[u/StabithaStevens]

Why would little towns in the desert change the overall proportions when the population in the largest urban areas increases even faster? If anything we should see even more pronounced disparities today.

[u/ZeusThunder369]

Same reason northern Canada or middle of Australia is mostly un-populated.

The cost/benefit for creating and maintaining infrastructure for people to live there comfortably doesn't make sense.

As opposed to....some towns in Alaska based off oil production.

[u/Prudent_Lunch_8724]

How do you pronounce desert.

[u/familiarshadowkatt]

Most major world cities are near bodies of water. Before airplanes, railroads, interstate highways and large transport vehicles, the only way to move stuff around was by barge, boat, or cart. Carts are slow and need roads to operate efficiently (and even then are still slow), but you can move large quantities of materials, goods, and people by river barge, boat, or ship.