Ramallah: The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) on Monday announced that the total population of the Palestinian Territories in mid-2011 stood at about 4.17 million.
Of these, 2.58 million were in the West Bank and 1.59 million in the Gaza Strip.
The new figures were released to mark World Population Day and give a review on the status of the Palestinian population. The number of males stands at 2.12 million while 2.05 million are females.
Ola Awadi, who heads the bureau said that 7.8 per cent of females aged 15 years and above are illiterate — a figure more than three times higher than that of males (2.4 per cent).
She said that the data revealed that the Palestinian population is a young population, with individuals aged 0-14 constituting 40.8 per cent of the total population while the elderly (65 years and above) constitute 2.9 per cent.
She said that population density of the Palestinian Territories is generally high at 693 people per square kilometre. In the Gaza Strip it is 4,353 people per square kilometre.
The West Bank has a lower population density of 456 people per square kilometre.
Ola said that the fertility rate in the Palestinian Territories is considered high compared to other countries, although data over the last decade of the last century reveals that the rate has been waning.
She said that population projections revealed that the crude birth rate in the Palestinian Territories is expected to drop from 32.8 births per one thousand of population in 2011 to 31.9 births in 2015.
The crude death rate in Palestinian Territories is expected to decline from 4.0 deaths per every 1,000 people in 2011, to 3.6 deaths per 1,000 people in 2015.
