A total of 17.2 percent of Egypt’s youth aged 15-29 years old wish to emigrate and live abroad, according to a 2014 survey carried out by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).
According to the survey, 93 percent of the respondents want to live abroad for a temporary period of five years.
A similar survey, carried out in 2009, showed 18.3 of young people in the same age group wish to emigrate.
The survey also showed young men prefer to live abroad more than young women.
Over a quarter, 25.8 percent of Egyptian males aged from 18-24 years old hope to live abroad, compared to only 7.8 percent of Egyptian females.
The survey showed that 30.3 percent of university degree holders want to emigrate from Egypt, compared to 17.2 percent for the less educated, according to the survey.
Around 65.6 percent of young people between 18 and 29 years old said they want to emigrate in search for better job opportunities, while only 10 percent said they want to leave for security reasons.
Egypt’s total unemployment rate reached 13.2 percent in the first quarter of 2014, according to CAPMAS.
The total labor force reached 27.3 million of Egypt’s population of 94 million.
A percentage of 48.8 of the respondents said they want to emigrate to Saudi Arabia while 12.5 percent said they favor western countries, according to the survey.
