Palestine

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Hebrew and Arabic counts

dusseaux.antoine_289191, Sat, 2022-04-30 05:08
Regarding: 
Language Counts
Country: 
Palestinian Territory, Occupied

According to Ethnologue, in 2019 there were:

  • 4,981,000 inhabitants in Palestine, including:
  • 804,000 (16%) Hebrew speakers, and
  • 4,000,000 (80%) South Levantine Arabic speakers

I think the overall population includes East Jerusalem.

According to the CIA World Factbook, in the West Bank 12-14% of inhabitants are Jewish ( https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/#people-and-s... ) (and 0% in Gaza: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/gaza-strip/#people-and-... ). Based on the 2022 population of the West Bank (3,000,021) that's between 360,000 and 420,000 people who are most likely L1 Hebrew speakers and not ajp speakers. I guess this number doesn't include East Jerusalem because on the same page, the CIA World Factbook notes: "approximately 432,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank (2019); approximately 227,100 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem (2019)" So a total of 659,100 Jewish settlers in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). This number is confirmed by other sources:

  • https://www.btselem.org/topic/settlements "From 1967 through 2017, over 200 Israeli settlements were established in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem); their current population is almost 620,000." (as of 2017)
  • https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/EUSETTLERPT_120321... "There are approximately 220,000 Israeli settlers living in East Jerusalem while the settler population in Area C of the West Bank is approximately 441,600. This brings the Israeli settler population in the West Bank to around 647,800 individuals in some 170 settlement locations and some 134 outposts." (as of July 2020)
  • https://www.britannica.com/place/Israeli-settlement "Despite the agreement, settlement building proliferated, especially in the West Bank, and in 2019 the number of settlers reached nearly 630,000 (413,000 if East Jerusalem is excluded)."

Another source gives a way higher figure for the number of Jewish settlers: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/facts-about-jewish-settlements-in-t... "The estimate for the Jewish population in 128 West Bank settlements at the beginning of February 2022 was 490,493, roughly 5 percent of Israel’s total population. This figure excludes 330,000 residents of the Old City and 22 surrounding communities that are technically part of the West Bank." (so a total of 820,493 settlers in the West Bank)

But I think the other sources are more reliable and agree on a total of about 650,000 Jewish settlers. So based on the latest EU estimate I would consider that there were 647,800 Jewish settlers in Palestine (West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza) in 2020. According to the World Bank ( https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=PS ) the total population of the West Bank in 2020 was 4,803,269.

So Jewish settlers represent 13.5% of the total Palestinian population. I assume there are L1 Hebrew speakers. And I assume the rest of the Palestinian population speaks Levantine Arabic either as an L1 or an L2.

Using the 2022 population figure (5.3 million according to the UN: https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population/PS ), this leads to:

  • 715,500 L1 Hebrew speakers (13.5% of the total)
  • 4,584,500 L1+L2 South Levantine Arabic speakers
Editorial Action

We will update the L1 speaker population for Hebrew [heb] in Palestine, for inclusion in the next edition of the Ethnologue.

Update overall population

dusseaux.antoine_289191, Tue, 2022-04-05 12:48
Regarding: 
Language Counts
Country: 
Palestinian Territory, Occupied

According to the current edition: the total population was 4,981,000 (2019 UNDESA)

According to the UN, the 2022 population is 5.3 million people: https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population/PS

So I think all population figures could be increased proportionally based on the overall population increase. For instance for ajp (South Levantine): (4,000,000/4,981,000) * 5,300,000 = 4.3 million speakers

Editorial Action

We will update the country population for Palestine and, along with it, the L1 speaker population for South Levantine Spoken Arabic [ajp] (based on a percentage of the total population), for inclusion in the next edition of the Ethnologue.