The tomb of Rekhmire the vizier, the highest ranking official under the pharaohs Tuthmosis III and Amenophis II (New Kingdom). Representation from foreigners, bringing trades, tibutes and taxes to the tomb owner. Wikimedia
Ancient Egypt Population Estimates: Slaves and Citizens
Published: April 16, 2016
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
[1] Ancient writers give various estimates: Diodorus Siculus claims the population of Egypt was not less than 3 million in the first century B.C.E. and that it had been 7 million “in antiquity”(I, 31, 7-8); Herodotus believed there to be 20,000 inhabited towns in Egypt (Histories, 199).
[2] Guillemette Andreu, Egypt in the Age of the Pyramids (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), 2; Meskell, Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt (Princeton University Press, 2002), 26.
[3] Karl Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization (University of Chicago Press, 1976), 80-87, fig. 13; Barry J. Kemp, Anatomy of a Civilization (2nd edition. London & New York: Routledge, 2006), 49-50. Butzer’s attempt remains the best at scientific demography regarding pre-Roman Egypt.
[4] Hassan generally agrees with this citing the population at 2.1 million in F.A. Hassan, “The Dynamics of a Riverine Civilization: A Geoarchaeological Perspective on the Nile Valley, Egypt,” World Archaeology 29.1 (1997): 51-74.
[5] David O’Connor, “New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period,” in Ancient Egypt: A Social History (Cambridge University Press, 1983), 190. To the present writer these figures seem high, and Butzer’s estimate is far more likely due to it being based on substantial research on geographical and agricultural realities.
[6] John Madden, “Slavery in the Roman Empire: Numbers and Origins,” Classics Ireland 3 (1996), accessed March 30, 2016, http://www.ucd.ie/cai/classics-ireland/1996/Madden96.html. Bagnall and Freir place the figure in town slightly higher (13.5%) and rural areas considerably higher (8.5%) in The Demography of Roman Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 1994).
[7] F.A. Hassan, “Chapter Four: The Wealth of the Land,” in Ancient Egypt (David P. Silverman, ed. Oxford University Press, 1997), 67.
[8] Hoffmeier, “Annals,” in Context of Scripture, vol II: 12. The reliability of the totals is less important for this particular discussion than the simple fact that various captives are noted using several different terms to distinguish their social standing. Similar lists can be cited for texts from Amenhotep II’s reign. For details see: Bernadette Menu,. “Captives de guerre et dépendance rurale dans l’Égypte du
Nouvel Empire” in La dépendance rurale dans l’Antiquitéégyptienne et proche-orientale (B. Menu, ed. IFAO, 2005),190, especially note no. 15; J.J. Janssen, “Eine Beuteliste von Amenophis II und das Problem der Slaverei im alten Aegypten,” JEOL 17 (1963), 141-147; P. Der Manuelian, Studies in the Reign of Amenophis II (HÄB. Hildesheim, 1987).
[9] James H. Breasted, Ancient Records in Egypt, vol. 2 (University of Illinois Press: 2001 (reprint of 1906), 203.
[10] Menu, “Captifs du guerre,” 190.
[11] K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions Translated & Annotated, Volume II: Ramesses II, Royal Inscriptions (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), 24.
[12] K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions I: 33; Peter J. Brand, The Monuments of Seti: Epigraphic, Historical and Art Historical Analysis (Leiden, Boston, & Köln: Brill, 2000), 221.
