Ma’an News / December 31, 2020
Ramallah, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said Thursday that the number of Palestinians estimated at the end of 2020 is about 13.7 million Palestinians; 5.2 million in the State of Palestine, about 1.6 million Palestinians in the 1948 territories, about 6.2 million in Arab countries and about 738,000 in foreign countries.
About 6.8 million Palestinians live in historic Palestine
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that the Palestinian population in historic Palestine is around 6.80 million by the end of 2020, while the number of Jews is expected to reach 6.88 million by the end of 2020, and the number of Palestinians and Jews will be equal by the end of 2022, and the number of Palestinians and Jews will be about 7.1 million each.
More than one third of the population resides in the Gaza Strip by the end of 2020
The population of the State of Palestine is estimated at 5.2 million, about 3.1 million in the West Bank and 2.1 million in the Gaza Strip. In 2017, the Palestinian population accounted for 42 percent of the total Palestinian population living in the State of Palestine, 26% in the West Bank and 66% in the Gaza Strip.
Decline in fertility rates
The total fertility rate during the period (2017-2019) decreased to 3.8 births, compared with 4.6 births in 1999; 3.8 births in the West Bank and 3.9 in the Gaza Strip.
Decrease in average family size
The average family size decreased to 5.1 in 2019 from 6.1 in 2000; by 4.9 in the West Bank and 5.5 in the Gaza Strip.
Child and infant mortality rates are declining.
The under-five mortality rate in the State of Palestine was 14 children per 1,000 live births in 2015-2019; 15 in the West Bank and 14 in the Gaza Strip.
The government’s decision to extend the period of the year to 2010 was a very high rate of 10 per cent. The data indicate a decrease in child mortality over the previous 10 years, reaching 15 children per 1,000 live births.
Continued decline in marriage rates before the age of 18 among females
Results for 2020 show that about 13% of women aged 20-24 got married for the first time before the age of 18, and in the West Bank the percentage was about 11% compared to about 17% in the Gaza Strip.
This percentage is lower than in 2014, with about a quarter (24%) of women in the 20-24 age group marrying for the first time before the age of 18 in Palestine.
High fertility rates among Palestinian women in Jordan compared to Palestinian women in Syria and Lebanon
The total fertility rate of Palestinian women living in Jordan was 3.3 births in 2010 compared to 2.5 births in Syria in 2010, while the average was 2.7 births for Palestinian women in Lebanon in 2017.
Palestinian society in the territories of 1948 a young society
The number of Palestinians estimated in the 1948 territories was estimated at 1.63 million Palestinians by the end of 2020, and the proportion of males under the age of 15 was 32.4% compared to 31.4% for females, while the proportion of male individuals aged 65 and over was 4.5% compared to 5.4% for females in 2019.
82,000 fewer workers in Q3 2020 compared to Q3 2019
The number of workers decreased from 1,022,000 in the third quarter of 2019 to 935,000 in the third quarter of 2020 by 8%, with the number in the Gaza Strip declining by 17% from the third quarter of 2019 and in the West Bank by 5.5% during the same period.
13% of employees were absent from work during the third quarter of 2020 due to the pandemic
The number of employees absent from their jobs increased from 99,000 in the third quarter of 2019 to 117,000 in the third quarter of 2020 by 18%, and this increase may be due to reasons associated with the Coved 19 pandemic and measures taken to reduce its spread.
Decline in the number of workers in the domestic market between the third quarters 2019 and the third quarter 2020
The number of workers in the local market decreased from 881,000 in the third quarter of 2019 to 800,000 in the third quarter of 2020, with the number in the Gaza Strip falling by 17% and the West Bank by 5.9%.
About half of the main breadwinners of working families were absent from work during the closure period
Forty-seven percent of workers were absent from work during the closure period from March 5 to May 25, 2020, with a clear disparity between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (54% in the West Bank and 32% in the Gaza Strip).
More than half of students in the West Bank participated in distance learning activities
The measures adopted by the Government during the Corona pandemic led to the disruption of educational institutions from 5 March to 25 May 2020, and led to a shift to a distance education system to compensate students for their missed subjects, although the results of the Covid-19 (CORONA) pandemic survey indicated that the social and economic conditions of Palestinian families had been affected. In addition, 51% of families in the State of Palestine with children (6-18 years old) enrolled in pre-closure education participated in remote educational activities during the closure period (March 5-25, 2020) (53.3% in the West Bank and 48.5% in the Gaza Strip).
Two out of five families assessed the distance learning experience as bad and didn’t work.
Data from the Covid-19 (CORONA) pandemic survey on the socio-economic conditions of Palestinian families, 2020 indicated that 40% of families whose children participated in any remote educational activities during the closure period (March 5- May 25, 2020), assessed the experience as bad and did not perform its purpose, while about 39% assessed the experience as good and did its purpose, but there was room for improvement of the experience, and 21% valued the experience as well-purpose and well-purpose.
Two out of five families whose income has been halved or more
Data from the 2020 Covid-19 (Corona) pandemic survey showed that 42% of Palestinian households reported that their income slumped by more than half during the closure period (March 5-25, 2020), compared to February 2020.
Decrease in monthly household spending on food during the closure period
About 41% of households reported that their monthly food expenditure decreased during the closure period compared to February 2020 (42% in the West Bank and 40% in the Gaza Strip). Some 29% of households said that cash transfer programs are one of the most important measures the government must take, followed by job creation and employment (21%), and the third priority is to provide food coupons, food parcels and purchasing vouchers (19%).
