RAMALLAH, October 3, 2010 (WAFA)- On the occasion of the World Elderly Day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) revealed that elderly people in the Palestinian Territory represent 4.4% of the total population at mid 2010.
PCBS presented this release to bring attention to the situation of the elderly in the Palestinian Territory. The elderly are defined as people aged 60 years and over. The following briefly describes the main indicators of elderly people in the Palestinian Territory.
The elderly represent 4.4% of the population in the Palestinian Territory at mid 2010. Statistics on elderly vary by region as they comprise 4.9% of total population in the West Bank compared with 3.7% in Gaza Strip. On the other hand, the female elderly population in the Palestinian Territory reached 5.0% of total population compared with 3.8% for males; while the sex ratio for this group is 79.0 males per 100 females.
Life expectancy for old women is higher than old men in general and this is related to health and biological factors. Life expectancy in the Palestinian Territory is 70.8 years for males and 73.6 years for females in 2010, and is expected to reach 72.0 years for males and 75.0 years for females in 2015.
The elderly persons head 17.0% of households in the Palestinian Territory. While the mean household size in the Palestinian Territory was 5.8 persons in 2009, elderly-headed households are composed of 3.9 persons, compared to 5.8 for households headed by non-elderly.
About 9.5% of the elderly males in the Palestinian Territory in 2009 are widowed compared to 46.4% as widowed females. This difference between widowed elderly males and widowed elderly females is related to the increase in life expectancy of females compared to males in all countries and the probability of remarriage for male after the death of his wife is higher than of a female remarrying after the death of her husband.
About 12.0% of the elderly persons participated in the labor force in the Palestinian Territory in the Second Quarter 2010. In addition, about 55.1% of Palestinian elderly employees are self-employed compared with 20.3% as wage employees.
Data of year 2009 revealed that elderly people in the Palestinian Territory did not have good education opportunities as 72.7% of them had not completed any education stage and this represents about 54.1% of the illiterate persons aged 15 years and over. Data showed that only 5.7% had completed associate diploma. In the same context, significant variation exists between elderly males and females as 56.5% of elderly males did not complete any educational stage compared to 84.8% among females.
About 26.3% of the elderly had disability compared with 5.3% for all persons in 2007 in the West Bank (excluding those parts of Jerusalem which were annexed by Israel in 1967). Moreover, 16.4% of disabled elderly suffer from seeing disability compared with 14.7% suffer from moving disability.
The findings also show that 74.8% of elderly people watch television; of whom 80.5% are in the West Bank and 62.6% in Gaza Strip in 2009.
Statistics indicate that 44.7% of elderly people listen to the radio; of whom 48.0% in Gaza Strip and 43.2% in the West Bank. More elderly males listen to the radio than elderly females in 2009 (46.4% and 43.3%, respectively).
About 19.0% of elderly people read newspapers and magazines out of the total elderly who can read. The regional variations in this regard are in favor of the West Bank at 24.2% compared to 7.6% for Gaza Strip in 2009.
