RAMALLAH, July 11, 2013 (WAFA) – Marking the International Population Day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in a report issued Thursday that the estimated population of Palestine at mid-2013 was about 4.42 million, divided into 2.24 million males and 2.18 million females.
It said that the estimated population of the West Bank was 2.72 million, of which 1.38 million males and 1.34 million females, while the estimated population of Gaza Strip totaled 1.7 million, of which 864,000 males and 837,000 females.
The urban population in mid-2013 was estimated at 73.8
percent of the total population, while the population in rural areas was 16.8
percent and refugee camps 9.4 percent.
The figures were based on estimates prepared by PCBS
according to the results of the Population, Housing and Establishment Census of
2007.
Data revealed that the population of Palestine is a young population; the percentage of individuals aged 0-14 years constituted 40.1 percent of the total population of which 38 percent in the West Bank and 43.4 percent in Gaza Strip.
The elderly population aged 65 years and over constituted
2.9 percent of the total population of which 3.2 percent in the West Bank and
2.4 in Gaza Strip.
While Palestine in general had a high population density at
734 people per square kilometer, the Gaza Strip had a very high density at 4,661
people per square kilometer compared to 481 people per square kilometer in the West
Bank.
Fertility rate in Palestine had declined to 4.4 births in 2008-2009 compared to 6 births in 1997 and crude birth rate in Palestine is expected to drop from 32.6 births per 1000 in 2013 to 31.9 births in 2015.
Crude death rate is also expected to decline from 3.8 deaths
per 1000 of the population in 2013 to 3.6 deaths in 2015.
The data also showed that about one fourth of participants in the labor force, 23.9 percent, were unemployed in the first quarter of 2013, divided into 20.3 percent in the West Bank and 31 percent in Gaza Strip. Unemployment rate reached 35.3 percent among females compared to 21.2 percent among males.
M.S.
