Governorate	Population
Governorate	1997	2007	2021
West Bank	1,873,476	2,350,583	2,949,246*
Jenin	203,026	256,619	332,050
Tubas	36,609	50,261	64,507
Tulkarem	134,110	157,988	195,341
Qalqilya	72,007	91,217	119,042
Salfit	48,538	59,570	80,225
Nablus	261,340	320,830	407,754
Ramallah/Al-Bireh	213,582	279,730	347,818
Jerusalem	328,601	363,649	461,666
Jericho	32,713	42,320	52,355
Bethlehem/Bet Jala	137,286	176,235	229,884
Hebron	405,664	552,164	762,541
Gaza Strip	1,022,207	1,499,369	1,957,062*
North Gaza	183,373	290,843	403,457
Gaza City	367,388	524,001	695,967
Deir Al-Balah	147,877	216,494	294,260
Khan Yunis	200,704	290,399	401,582
Rafah	122,865	177,632	252,703
Total Population	2,895,683	3,849,952	4,906,308*

*Note: The accuracy of Palestinian official statistics are controversial. See, for example, Yotam Berger and Jack Khoury, “How Many Palestinians Live in Gaza and the West Bank? It’s Complicated,” Haaretz, (May 28 2018); Yakov Faitelson, “The Politics of Palestinian Demography,” Middle East Quarterly, (Spring 2009), pp. 51-59; Bennett Zimmerman, Roberta Seid, and Michael L. Wise, “The Million Person Gap: The Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza,” Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, (February 2006).

Sergio DellaPergola gives totals of 2,688,900 for the West Bank and 1,980,000 for the Gaza Strip for a total of 4,668,900 Palestinians in the Palestinian Authority as of January 2021. “World Jewish Population, 2020,” in Arnold Dashefsky and Ira M. Sheskin (eds.), The American Jewish Year Book, 2020, Volume 119. Dordrecht: Springer, (2021);

The Jewish Virtual Library uses CIA data whenever possible to avoid debate over figures provided by the Palestinian Authority. The totals are from the CIA whereas the figures for the individual governorates are from the PA so adding the totals for the governorates will be different. The July 2021 estimate by the CIA, for example, indicates the population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is 2,949,246 and 1,957,062, respectively, for a total population of 4,906,308. The comparable figures for 2020 published in March 2021 by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics are 3,086,816, 2,077,357, and 5,164,173, a difference of about 5%.

Sources: Palestine in Figures 2020, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, (March 2021).
The World Fact Book, CIA, (2021).

Palestinian Authority: Population Statistics