Palestinian population over 11 million by end of 2011

The estimated population of Palestinians around the world was 11.2 million by the end of 2011, said a Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) press release on Thursday.

Marking the 64th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, when Palestinians were uprooted from their homes and land to make room for the establishment of Israel, the PCBS said that while the Palestinian population was estimated at 1.37 million in 1948, it has increased eight-times by the end of 2011.

According to statistics, the total number of Palestinians living in historical Palestine between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean has reached 5.6 million by 2011.

This number is expected to rise to 7.2 million by the end of 2020 based on current growth rates, it said.

Statistical data showed that 44.1% of the total Palestinian population in the Palestinian Territory is refugees.

There were around 5.1 million registered Palestinian refugees by the end of 2011; 59.1% of whom were living in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, 17.1% in the West Bank, and 23.8% in the Gaza Strip.

About 29% of registered Palestinian refugees live in 58 refugee camps, 10 of which are in Jordan, nine in Syria, 12 in Lebanon, 19 in the West Bank, and eight in the Gaza Strip.

The number of Palestinians who did not leave their homes or towns in 1948 after the Nakba was estimated at 154,000 persons. They are now estimated at 1.37 million.

The number of Palestinians in the Palestinian Territory was estimated at 4.2 million by the end of 2011 - 2.6 million in the West Bank and 1.6 million in Gaza Strip.

The number of Palestinians in the occupied al-Quds reached 393,000 persons - 62.1% of whom live in the areas of the city annexed by force by Israel in 1967.

These estimates do not include Palestinians who were displaced between 1949 and the 1967 war, according to the UNRWA definition, and do not include the non-refugees who left or were forced to leave as a result of the war in 1967.