The number of older Egyptians, aged 60 years or above, has exceeded 6.41 million in 2018, comprising 6.7 percent of the country's 104 million population, Egypt's official statistics agency said Saturday.

The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a statement that the total number of older Egyptians include more than 3.41 million males and about 3 million females.

The statement was issued to mark the upcoming International Day of Older Persons, which falls on Oct. 1 every year.

The CAPMAS expects the number of older Egyptians to increase by 2031 to represent 11.5 percent of the population.

It added that 19.4 percent of Egyptian families, about 4.54 million families, depend on older people, as the number of working aged Egyptians has exceeded 1.25 million.

"The death rate of older people hit 62.6 percent of the total deaths in Egypt in 2017," said the CAPMAS.

The United Nations said that the number of older persons is expected to more than double by 2050, rising from 962 million globally in 2017 to 2.1 billion.