World Refugee Day: more than 6 million are Palestinian

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) released a statistical review on the status of Palestinian refugees in honor of World Refugee Day. The main findings are summarized as follows:

According to United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) records, registered Palestinian refugees totaled 4.56 million at the end of 2007, of whom 41.7% are in Jordan, 23.0% in Gaza Strip, 16.3% in the West Bank, 9.9% in Syria and 9.1% in Lebanon. About 1.5 million Palestinians refugee are estimated to be non-registered refugees. Therefore the total Palestinian refugee is more than six million.

The percentage of Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian Territory in the year 2006 represents 44.6% of the total Palestinian Territory population, of which 19.4% are in the West Bank and 25.2 % in Gaza Strip

Refugees in the Palestinian Territory are characterized as a young population, 45.8% of them are under the age of 15 years compared to 45.3% for non-refugees. On the other hand, 2.8 % of refugees are aged 65 years and over, compared to 3.1% for the non-refugees in the Palestinian Territory for the year 2006.

The percentage of Palestinian refugees aged less than 15 years of the total refugee population in Jordan in 2000 reached 41.7%, 33.1% in Syria in 2003, and 33.0% in Lebanon in 2006.

The gender ratio of the refugee population in the Palestinian Territory is almost the same as of the non-refugees at 101.8 and 102.0 males per one-hundred females respectively compared to 102.3 for Palestinian refugees in Syria, and 98.5 for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Total Fertility Rate for refugees in the Palestinian Territory was 4.9 births per woman for 2006, on the other hand the total fertility rate of the Palestinian refugee women in 2000 in Jordan was 4.6 children compared to 2.4 in Syria and 2.3 in Lebanon in 2006.

The average household size for refugees in the Palestinian Territory for 2006 was 6.3 people. In Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon the household sizes are 5.4, 4.1, and 3.8 respectively.

2.6% of the Palestinian refugees are disabled compared to 2.4% for the non-refugees.

9.8% of Palestinian refugees suffer chronic diseases and receive medication which is higher than the national percentage of 9.6% and the non-refugees percentage of 9.4%.

Percentage of poor households headed by a Palestinian refugee is 43.1% of the total poor households in the Palestinian Territory.

The unemployment rate of Palestinian refugees 15 years and over in the Palestinian Territory during the first quarter 2008, was 26.1% compared with 20.0% for non refugee.

Approximately 62.5% of the employed persons are wage employees (67.7% for refugees and 58.9% for non-refugees). The percentage of those who own their business is 24.3% (21.0% for refugees and 26.5% for non-refugees).

The illiteracy rate of Palestinian refugees 15 years and over in the Palestinian Territory during the first quarter 2007 was 5.7% compared with 6.5% for non refugee.

The illiteracy rate among Palestinian refugees in Jordan refugee camps in 2000 was approximately 17.6%, in Syria the rate in 2006 was 16.5%, and in Lebanon the rate in 2006 was almost 25.5%.

The dropout rate for refugees aged 6 years and above at schools in the Palestinian Territory in 2006 reached 22.6%, of which 23.4% were males and 21.8% were females compared to 27.2% for the non-refugees, of which 28.6% were males and 25.7% were females.