People

Population: 532 173 (July 1998 est.)

note: in addition there are 6 000 Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip (August 1997 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 52% (male 128 551; female 135 009)

15-64 years: 46% (male 111 420; female 128 857)

65 years and over: 2% (male 12 966; female 17 370) (July 1998 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.4% (1998 est.)

Birth rate: 19.07 births/1 000 population (1998 est.)

Death rate: 40.7 deaths/1 000 population (1998 est.)

Net migration rate: 18.97 migrant(s)/1 000 population (1998 est.)

Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female (1998 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 24.45 deaths/1 000 live births (1998 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 72.95 years

male: 71.56 years

female: 74.4 years (1998 est.)

Total fertility rate: 4.57 children born/woman (1998 est.)

Nationality:

noun: NA

adjective: NA

Ethnic groups: Palestinian Arab and other 99.4% Jewish 0.6%

Religions: Muslim (predominantly Sunni) 98.7% Christian 0.7% Jewish 0.6%

Languages: Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers and many Palestinians) English (widely understood)

Literacy: NA