Palestinian population reaches 15.5 million worldwide, half lives in Palestine

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Tuesday that the number of Palestinians worldwide has reached about 15.5 million, including 7.4 million living in historic Palestine.

In a statement marking the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, a term used by Palestinians to mark Israel’s creation in 1948, the bureau said about 8.1 million Palestinians live in the diaspora.

It said more than two million Palestinians are displaced inside Gaza and the occupied West Bank as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza and continued settlement expansion.

Israel’s war on Gaza has displaced nearly two million Palestinians out of about 2.2 million who lived in the enclave on the eve of the war, the bureau said. Many now live in tents, shelters and schools.

About 40,000 Palestinians have also been displaced from refugee camps in the northern West Bank because of the ongoing Israeli military operations, the bureau added.

In the West Bank, illegal Israeli settlement activity continues to expand, the statement said, adding that the number of illegal settlements and military bases reached 645 by the end of 2025. The total includes 151 illegal settlements, 350 settlement outposts and 144 other sites.

Official figures show that the number of Israeli occupiers in the West Bank reached about 778,567 by the end of 2024, with 42.8% concentrated in occupied East Jerusalem.

The bureau said Israeli authorities seized more than 5,571 dunams (1,377 acres) of Palestinian land in 2025 through seizure orders, expropriation and declarations of “state land.”

It also documented more than 61,000 attacks by Israeli forces and occupiers in the West Bank between 2022 and 2025, which led to the uprooting and bulldozing of more than 81,000 trees, most of them olive trees.

Israeli authorities continue to impose strict restrictions on Palestinians through about 900 military checkpoints and gates across the West Bank, limiting residents’ movement and blocking access to large areas of agricultural and grazing land, the bureau said.

In Gaza, the bureau said Israel’s war has completely destroyed more than 102,000 buildings and fully or partially damaged more than 330,000 housing units, along with widespread destruction of infrastructure, health facilities and schools.

The Israeli army has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 172,000 others in a two-year offensive on Gaza since October 2023.

*Writing by Lina Altawell