Israeli Settlement - Demographics

Demographics

See also: Population statistics for Israeli West Bank settlements

As of July 2009, 304,569 Israelis were living in 121 authorised settlements and 102 unauthorised settlement outposts on the West Bank and 192,000 Israelis were living in East Jerusalem. As of June 2011, 340,000 Israeli Jews were living on the West Bank, excluding Jerusalem (the current population figures are estimated at 350,000). Based on various sources, population dispersal can be estimated as follows:

Jewish population 1948 1966 1972 1977 1980 1983 1993 2004 2007 2009
West Bank (excluding Jerusalem) 480 (see Gush Etzion) 0 1,182 3,200 17,400 22,800 111,600 234,487 276,462 304,569
Gaza Strip 30 (see Kfar Darom) 0 700 1 900 4,800 7,826 0 0
Golan Heights 0 0 77 6,800 12,600 17,265 18,692 20,000
East Jerusalem 2,300 (see Jewish Quarter, Atarot, Neve Yaakov) 0 8,649 76,095 152,800 181,587 189,708 192,000
Total 2,810 0 10,608 1 106,595 281,800 441,165 484,862 516,569
1 including Sinai

In addition to internal migration, in large though declining numbers, the settlements absorb annually about 1000 new immigrants from outside Israel. In the 1990s, the annual settler population growth was more than three times the annual population growth in Israel. Population growth has continued in the 2000s. According to the BBC, the settlements in the West Bank have been growing at a rate of 5–6% since 2001.

As of 2009, the total number of Israelis living in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights was 516,569. In 2011, the population had swelled to almost 600,000, comprising more that 10 percent of Israeli Jews.

Read more about this topic:  Israeli Settlement