Distillers Egypt
A one-page guide to Egypt for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Cairo
- Official languages
- Arabic
- Currency
- Egyptian pound (EGP)
- Time zone
- UTC+2 (UTC+3 summer)
- Area
- 1,001,450 km²
People
- Population
- 118.4 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 1.6% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 42.9%
- Aged under 15
- 31.6%
- Aged 65 and over
- 5.3%
- Life expectancy
- 71.8 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$365.3 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$3,086 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 4.39% (2025)
- Inflation
- 14.07% (2025)
Climate
Very hot, sunny and dry. The northern coast is milder; spring khamsin winds can push inland daytime temperatures above 40 C. Rain falls mostly October to March on the north coast; very little south of Cairo.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 21 (Law No. 371 of 1956, per Wikipedia table)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 0.13 litres of pure alcohol (2020)
- What people drink
- Beer 50%, wine 9%, spirits 41% (2022)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia: Egypt; World Bank Open Data API (population, area, GDP, growth, inflation); Our World in Data / WHO GHO alcohol per capita; Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; Euromonitor: Spirits in Egypt (Sept 2026, listing); rum.cz - Distillerie Zottos & Co., Alexandria (citing 1998 AmCham Egypt); Egyptian International Beverage Company (Wikipedia); Wikipedia - Beer in Egypt (Stella, Heineken, ABC 89% share). Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.