Palestinians numbered 8.3 million at the end of the year 2002, including 3.6 million in the territories and the rest scattered throughout the entire world, the Palestinian Authority said in a report issued on Wednesday.
The report by the Palestinian Authority’s central statistics bureau, carried by the official WAFA news agency, said that 2.3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and another 1.3 million in the Gaza Strip.
Jordan has the largest concentration of Palestinians abroad, with 2.7 million, it added.
In the Palestinian territories, 46.4 percent of the population is aged under 15, while the annual birth rate runs at about four percent and the average family size is six.
The population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is expected to double over the next 19 years, it further said. (Albawaba.com)
