GEM 2025-2026 Global Report: Reading Egypt’s Entrepreneurial Pipeline Beyond a Single Headline
GEM 2025-2026 Global Report: Reading Egypt’s Entrepreneurial Pipeline Beyond a Single Headline
An ENCC competitiveness reading of entry, business continuity and the evidence needed for effective entrepreneurship policy
Official release: 2026-02-26 | Data year: 2025 | Coverage: 48 APS economies
Executive summary
In the official 2025 Adult Population Survey results, Egypt recorded 2.8% for Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) and 1.4% for Established Business Ownership (EBO), both as shares of adults aged 18–64.
- GEM does not publish one overall country competitiveness score or rank; its indicators describe different stages and conditions of entrepreneurship.
- TEA measures adults starting or running a young business, while EBO measures adults owning and managing an established business.
- The two indicators should be read together, but their difference is not a direct business-survival rate.
- Policy should focus on productive, formal and scalable firms—not on raising business-entry numbers in isolation.
What the report measures
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor combines the Adult Population Survey (APS), which measures attitudes and entrepreneurial activity among adults, with the National Expert Survey (NES), which assesses entrepreneurship framework conditions. This architecture makes GEM a diagnostic system rather than a conventional league table.
| Edition | Publication | Survey year | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEM 2025-2026 | 2026-02-26 | 2025 | 48 APS economies |
Egypt in this edition
In the official 2025 Adult Population Survey results, Egypt recorded 2.8% for Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) and 1.4% for Established Business Ownership (EBO), both as shares of adults aged 18–64.
| Indicator | Egypt result | Unit / evidence status | Reference year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) | 2.8% | Adults aged 18–64 | 2025 |
| Established Business Ownership (EBO) | 1.4% | Adults aged 18–64 | 2025 |
Competitiveness interpretation
Early-stage activity can reflect opportunity, necessity, labour-market adjustment or a mixture of motives. Established ownership captures a later stage, but neither indicator alone reveals firm productivity, innovation, job quality, formality or growth potential. ENCC therefore reads GEM as one part of a broader competitiveness evidence base.
- Entry: reduce avoidable regulatory and information costs without encouraging low-productivity churn.
- Continuity: strengthen management capabilities, finance access, market connections and compliance pathways that help viable firms mature.
- Quality: track innovation, exporting, digital adoption, employment and productivity alongside business counts.
- Inclusion: disaggregate entrepreneurial participation and constraints by gender, age, location and firm size where valid data are available.
Priority actions for Egypt
| Horizon | Priority action | Lead / partners | Monitoring signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–6 months | Create a reconciled entrepreneurship evidence dashboard linking GEM to national firm-demography and labour-market data. | MSMEDA, CAPMAS, relevant ministries, research partners | Coverage, definitions and annual data reconciliation completed |
| 6–12 months | Map the transition from business entry to formal operation, finance access, first employment and export readiness. | MSMEDA, FRA, CBE, GAFI, private sector | Stage-specific conversion and constraint indicators |
| 12–24 months | Target support toward viable firms with productivity, innovation and market-expansion potential, while retaining inclusive access. | Government, finance providers, incubators, universities | Firm survival, jobs, productivity, innovation and export outcomes |
Monitoring framework
- TEA and EBO, always labelled with the survey year and edition.
- Participation status, sample and methodology changes.
- New-business registrations and active-firm survival from national administrative sources.
- Formal employment, finance access, innovation, digital adoption, productivity and exports among young firms.
Data and methodology limits
GEM indicators are survey-based estimates. Participating economies, collection conditions and samples can change between editions. Adjacent values should not be treated as perfectly homogeneous annual observations, and association does not establish causality. The published Egypt values should be retained in their original edition rather than silently replaced by later revisions.