Editing Cairo (section)

====After 1956====
In the second half of the 20th century, Cairo continue to grow enormously in both population and area. Between 1947 and 2006, the population of [[Greater Cairo]] went from 2,986,280 to 16,292,269.{{Sfn|Sims|2012|p=83}} The population explosion also drove the rise of "informal" housing (''<nowiki/>'ashwa'iyyat''), meaning housing that was built without any official planning or control.{{Sfn|Sims|2012|p=95}} The exact form of this type of housing varies considerably but usually has a much higher population density than formal housing. By 2009, over 63% of the population of Greater Cairo lived in informal neighbourhoods, even though these occupied only 17% of the total area of Greater Cairo.{{Sfn|Sims|2012|p=96}} According to economist David Sims, informal housing has the benefits of providing affordable accommodation and vibrant communities to huge numbers of Cairo's working classes, but it also suffers from government neglect, a relative lack of services, and overcrowding.{{Sfn|Sims|2012|pp=120-122}}

The "formal" city was also expanded. The most notable example was the creation of [[Nasr City|Madinat Nasr]], a huge government-sponsored expansion of the city to the east which officially began in 1959 but was primarily developed in the mid-1970s.{{Sfn|Sims|2012|pp=52-53}} Starting in 1977 the Egyptian government established the New Urban Communities Authority to initiate and direct the development of new planned cities on the outskirts of Cairo, generally established on desert land.<ref name="Ali-2020a">{{Cite book |last=Ali |first=Amal K. |title=The Routledge Handbook of Planning Megacities in the Global South |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-000-06205-2 |editor-last=Rukmana |editor-first=Deden |pages=337–339 |language=en |chapter=Challenges in Managing Urban Growth: The Case of Cairo |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=InnpDwAAQBAJ&dq=badr+city+cairo&pg=PT364}}</ref><ref name="UNECA-2017">{{Cite book |last=United Nations Economic Commission for Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTHLDwAAQBAJ&dq=cairo+first+generation+cities&pg=PA150 |title=Economic Report on Africa 2017: Urbanization and Industrialization for Africa's Transformation |publisher=United Nations |year=2017 |isbn=978-92-1-060392-8 |pages=150 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sims |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWtjEAAAQBAJ |title=Egypt's Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster? |publisher=American University in Cairo Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-61797-884-5 |language=en|edition=New }}</ref> These new satellite cities were intended to provide housing, investment, and employment opportunities for the region's growing population as well as to pre-empt the further growth of informal neighbourhoods.<ref name="Ali-2020a"/> As of 2014, about 10% of the population of Greater Cairo lived in the new cities.<ref name="Ali-2020a"/>

Concurrently, Cairo established itself as a political and economic hub for [[North Africa]] and the [[Arab world]], with many multinational businesses and organisations, including the [[Arab League]], operating out of the city. In 1979 the [[Islamic Cairo|historic districts]] of Cairo were listed as a [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]].<ref name="UNESCO-2017" />

In 1992, Cairo was hit by an [[1992 Cairo earthquake|earthquake]] causing 545 deaths, injuring 6,512 and leaving around 50,000 people homeless.<ref name="NGDC">{{cite web |url=https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-more-info/5339|title=Significant Earthquake Information|last=National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Earthquake Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information|year=1972 |publisher=NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information|doi=10.7289/V5TD9V7K}}</ref>