The population of Palestine is a mixed population. The population of Palestine has always been debatable and controversial. There was basically a lack of authentic figures and ample confusion prevailed over the census figures.
Population censuses carried out during the Ottoman empire were not authentic. Foreign residents were not taken into account. The illegal residents did their best to evade the census. Immigration and the movement of refugees into and out of the country hampered a proper demographic study of the population in Palestine.
The population in Palestine has been divided into two main ethnic groups. The Jews and the Arabs. The study of the demographics of Palestine has been divided into two distinctive territories. The West Bank and the Gaza strip. The population of West Bank in 2004 is estimated to be 2,535,927. It is estimated that 187,000 additional, Israeli settlers are there in the West Bank. The population growth rate according to 2007 is 2.985%. The birth rate is 30.99 births per thousand people and the death rate is 3.85 per thousand of the population. The literacy rate of the West Bank region is very high. 91.9% of the male and 96.3% of the female population above 15 years of age are able to read and write. The Palestine Arabs constitute 83% of the population, the Jewish comprise 17%. Islam is the predominant religion and 75% of the population are followers of Islam. 17% are Jewish and 8% are Christians.
In the Gaza strip, the total population is 1,080,000. The population growth rate is 3.71%. The main ethnic groups are Palestinian Arabs who comprise 99.4% of the population and Jews who constitute the remaining 0.6%. 98.7% of the population are Muslim, 0.7% are Christians and Jews are 0.6%. The literacy rate in the Gaza strip is also very high. 91.9% of the population, over the age of 15 can read and write. The birth rate according to the census in 2006 is 39.45 births per thousand population and the death rate is 3.8 deaths per thousand population.
Palestine’s population composition has played a major role in the events, policies, and debates that have reshaped the Israel-Palestine region.