Governorates of Egypt


For administrative purposes, Egypt is divided into twenty-seven governorates. Egyptian governorates are the top tier of the country's jurisdiction hierarchy. A governorate is administered by a governor, who is appointed by the President of Egypt and serves at the president's discretion. Most governorates have a population density of more than one thousand per km², while the three largest have a population density of less than two per km².

Overview

Governorates are either fully "urban" or a mixture of "urban" and "rural." The official distinction between "urban" and "rural" is reflected in the lower tiers: that is, fully urban governorates have no regions, as the markaz is, natively, a conglomeration of villages. Moreover, governorates may comprise just one city, as in the case of Cairo Governorate or Alexandria Governorate. Hence, these one-city governorates are only divided into districts. Cairo Governorate consists of 41 districts; Alexandria Governorate consists of 7.
Two new governorates were created in April 2008: Helwan and 6th of October. In April 2011, however, the 6th of October and Helwan governorates were again incorporated into the Cairo and Giza Governorates, respectively. Luxor was created in December 2009, to be the 29th governorate of Egypt, but with the abolition of the 6th of October and Helwan governorates, the number of governorates has decreased to 27.

History

Before the 1952 revolution, state penetration of the rural areas was limited by the power of local notables. Under Nasser, land reform reduced those notables' socioeconomic dominance, and the peasants were incorporated into cooperatives which transferred mass dependence from landlords to the government. The extension of officials into the countryside permitted the regime to bring development and services to the village. The local branches of the ruling party, the Arab Socialist Union, fostered a certain peasant political activism and coopted the local notables — in particular the village headmen — and checked their independence from the regime.
State penetration did not retreat under Sadat and Mubarak. The earlier effort to mobilize peasants and deliver services disappeared as the local party and cooperative withered, but administrative controls over the peasants remained intact. The local power of the old families and the headmen revived but more at the expense of peasants than of the state. The district police station balanced the notables, and the system of local government integrated them into the regime.
Until 1979, local government enjoyed limited power in Egypt's highly centralized state. Under the central government, there were twenty-six governorates, which were subdivided into regions , each of which was further subdivided into towns or villages. At each level, there was a governing structure that combined representative councils and government-appointed executive organs headed by governors, district officers, and mayors, respectively. Governors were appointed by the president, and they, in turn, appointed subordinate executive officers. The coercive backbone of the state apparatus ran downward from the Ministry of Interior through the governors' executive organs to the district police station and the village headman.
Sadat took several measures to decentralize power to the provinces and towns. Governors acquired more authority under Law Number 43 of 1979, which reduced the administrative and budgetary controls of the central government over the provinces. The elected councils acquired, at least formally, the right to approve or disapprove the local budget. In an effort to reduce local demands on the central treasury, local government was given wider powers to raise local taxes. Local representative councils became vehicles of pressure for government spending, and the soaring deficits of local government bodies had to be covered by the central government. Local government was encouraged to enter into joint ventures with private investors, and these ventures stimulated an alliance between government officials and the local rich that paralleled the infitah alliance at the national level. Under Mubarak, decentralization and local autonomy became more of a reality, and local policies often reflected special local conditions. Thus, officials in Upper Egypt often bowed to the powerful Islamic movement there, while those in the port cities struck alliances with importers."

List of Governorates of Egypt

Demographics

Urban and rural populations

Data taken from CAPMAS:
Governorate% UrbanPopulation RuralUrban
Alexandria4812186566984755488
Aswan1431488826543604945
Asyut424521531191121126103
Beheira580426246743461129916
Beni Suef2856812662941
Cairo927844109278441
Dakahlia594900142714281677573
Damietta1330843815244515599
Faiyum31701502456368713782
Gharbia475186533246301427235
Giza758511531383104446805
Ismailia1178641643778534863
Kafr El Sheikh31727532441246731507
Luxor1147058713422433636
Matruh447846131841316005
Minya51567024183284973418
Monufia39412933128460812833
New Valley225416117180108236
North Sinai434781173095261686
Port Said6665990666599
Qalyubia510597228250452280927
Qena30455042445051600453
Red Sea34577517062328713
Sharqia648541249877071497705
Sohag46038613618543985318
South Sinai1674268192485502
Suez6228590622859
Total42.787,963,27650,384,18837,579,088

Population density

Data taken from CAPMAS:. Information for population is in thousands, pop density - persons/km2 and area is in km2.
GovernoratePopulation in thousands Pop. Density Pop. Density % Inhabited to TotalInhabited AreaTotal Area
Alexandria4761
Aswan1412
Asyut4181
Beheira5720
Beni Suef2812
Cairo9184
Dakahlia5881
Damietta1316
Faiyum3118
Gharbia4698
Giza7487
Ismailia1162
Kafr El Sheikh3132
Luxor1132
Matruh437
Minya5076
Monufia3890
New Valley222
North Sinai428
Port Said660
Qalyubia5044
Qena3001
Red Sea341
Sharqia6402
Sohag4536
South Sinai166
Suez615
Total86,8141109.185.97.878272.981010407.87