A nation in numbers: what new data reveal about Palestinians worldwide
A 1930 Palestinian women’s protest in Jerusalem against the British Mandate.
The Palestine Chronicle reports on 9 July 2026:
At the end of 2025, Palestinians numbered approximately 15.5 million people worldwide. More than a statistic, that figure tells the story of a nation scattered across continents, shaped by decades of dispossession, and now confronting one of the most devastating chapters in its modern history.
Released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in cooperation with the National Population Committee ahead of World Population Day on July 11, the report presents a comprehensive demographic portrait of the Palestinian people while documenting the profound impact of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, continued displacement, and the deterioration of living conditions throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.
A People Scattered
According to the report, roughly 5.56 million Palestinians live in the State of Palestine, while 6.82 million reside in Arab countries.
Another 1.86 million Palestinians live inside the territories occupied in 1948, and approximately 1.26 million are spread across the rest of the world.
Despite decades of displacement and repeated wars, Palestinian society remains one of the youngest in the region. Nearly 65 percent of Palestinians are under the age of 30, while 43 percent are children under 18.
Population growth also remains comparatively high. The fertility rate reached 3.8 births per woman during the 2017–2019 period, compared with three births per woman across Arab countries and 2.4 globally. In 2023, Palestine’s annual population growth rate stood at 2.4 percent, significantly higher than both the Arab average (1.5 percent) and the global rate (0.85 percent).
Gaza’s Demographic Catastrophe
The report describes Israel’s war on Gaza as an unprecedented demographic and humanitarian catastrophe.