(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JULY 17 - Every hour in Egypt 217 babies are born, for a total of almost 2 million newborns every year (1,854,048, precisely). This is the data at the basis of a demographic alert launched by the secretary general of the People's National Council (NPC), General Mohamed Khalifa, according to whom with this birth rate in 2058 the Egyptian population will reach almost 173 million. The forecast is dramatic when compared to the liveable surface of the country, in which out of some 1.0 million sq km (997,739 sq km, precisely), only 45,000 are habitable (less than 5.0%), along the Nile and in the river delta. ''But if measures are taken to decrease the demographic growth, in 2025 the population will reach 100 million and in 2050 only 120 million'', Khalifa stated to daily Al Masr Al Youm. ''The population growth is a serious obstacle to the government's efforts for the development and improvement of the living standards, because it involves also a rampant growth of illiteracy, unemployment and poverty'', the officer said. Already in the past few years the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak exhorted the population to birth control. Recently the Healthcare Minister Hatem el Gabali informed that USD 90 million were extended for a family planning programme which could limit births.