Greater Cairo

Greater Cairo
القاهرة الكبرى
Metropolitan area
Greater Cairo in red
Greater Cairo in red
Coordinates: 30°03′N 31°22′E / 30.050°N 31.367°E / 30.050; 31.367
Country Egypt
Core citiesCairo
Giza
Banha
Satellite cities6th of October
Sheikh Zayed
New Cairo
15th of May
Badr
Shubra El Kheima
Obour
10th of Ramadan
New Administrative Capital
Area
[a][1]
 • Metro
2,734 km2 (1,056 sq mi)
Population
 • Estimate 
(2023)[2]
22,183,000
GDP
[3]
 • MetroEGP 2,986 billion
(US$ 190.2 billion)
Time zoneUTC+2 (EGY)

The Greater Cairo (Arabic: القاهرة الكبرى, romanized: Al-Qāhira al-Kubrā) is a metropolitan area centered around Cairo, Egypt. It comprises the entirety of the Cairo Governorate, the cities of Imbaba[b] and Giza in the Giza Governorate, and the city Shubra El Kheima in Qalyubia Governorate.[4][5] Its definition can be expanded to include peri-urban areas and a number of new planned towns founded in the desert areas east and west of Cairo.[5] The Greater Cairo Region is also officially defined as an economic region consisting of the Cairo, Giza, and Qalyubia Governorates.[6][7] Within Greater Cairo lies the largest metropolitan area in Egypt,[8] the largest urban area in Africa, the Middle East, and the Arab world, and the 6th largest metropolitan area in the world.[9]

In its larger definition, the area includes all cities in the Cairo Governorate (Cairo, New Cairo, Badr, Shorouk, 15th of May, the New Administrative Capital, and Capital Gardens) as well as the main cities of the Giza Governorate (Giza, 6th of October, New 6 October, October Gardens, Sheikh Zayed, and New Sphinx) and Shubra El Kheima and Obour in the Qalyubia Governorate.[5] According to an estimate based on United Nations projections, the area had a population of 22,183,000 in 2023.[2] In 2012, when the area's population was estimated at 20.5 million, the population density within Cairo Governorate was estimated at 45,000 per square kilometer (117,00 per square mile).[10]


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  1. ^ "Major Agglomerations of the World - Population Statistics and Maps". City Population. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Cairo, Egypt Metro Area Population 1950-2023". Macrotrends. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  3. ^ "GDP BY GOVERNORATE", mped.gov.eg
  4. ^ a b Egypt - Greater Cairo Urban Development Project (English). Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. 1982. p. 4.
  5. ^ a b c Sims, David (2011). Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control. Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press. pp. 6–7.
  6. ^ Gómez-Álvarez, David; Rajack, Robin; López-Moreno, Eduardo; Lanfranchi, Gabriel, eds. (2014). Steering the Metropolis: Metropolitan Governance for Sustainable Urban Development. Inter-American Development Bank. p. 243. ISBN 978-1-59782-311-1.
  7. ^ "أقليم القاهرة الكبرى". الهيئة العامة للتخطيط العمرانى. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  8. ^ Demographia World Urban Areas & Population Projections (PDF), Demographia, April 2009, retrieved 9 July 2009
  9. ^ R.L. Forstall, R.P. Greene, and J.B. Pick, "Which are the largest? Why published populations for major world urban areas vary so greatly" Archived 31 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine, City Futures Conference, (University of Illinois at Chicago, July 2004) – Table 5 (p.34)
  10. ^ The Evolving Urban Form: Cairo, New Geography, 13 June 2012, retrieved 9 October 2015