Population: 987,869 (July 1997 est.)
note: in addition, there are 5,000 Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip
(August 1996 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 51% (male 261,014; female 248,236)
15-64 years: 46% (male 225,707; female 224,483)
65 years and over: 3% (male 12,281; female 16,148) (July 1997 est.)

Population growth rate: 6.59% (1997 est.)

Birth rate: 49.85 births/1,000 population (1997 est.)

Death rate: 4.2 deaths/1,000 population (1997 est.)

Net migration rate: 20.25 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1997 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over : 0.76 male(s)/female
total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (1997 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 26 deaths/1,000 live births (1997 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population : 72.46 years
male: 71.12 years
female : 73.87 years (1997 est.)

Total fertility rate: 7.68 children born/woman (1997 est.)

Nationality:
noun: NA
adjective: NA

Ethnic groups: Palestinian Arab and other 99.4%, Jewish 0.6%

Religions: Muslim (predominantly Sunni) 98.7%, Christian 0.7%, Jewish
0.6%

Languages: Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers and many
Palestinians), English (widely understood)

Literacy: NA

@Gaza Strip:Government

Country name:
conventional long form : none
conventional short form: Gaza Strip
local long form: none
local short form: Qita Ghazzah

Data code: GZ

Economy

Economy - overview: Economic progress in the Gaza Strip has been
hampered by tight Israeli security restrictions. In 1991 roughly 40%
of Gaza Strip workers were employed across the border by Israeli
industrial, construction, and agricultural enterprises, with worker
remittances supplementing GDP by roughly 50%. Gaza has depended upon
Israel for nearly 90% of its external trade. The Persian Gulf crisis
and its aftershocks has dealt blows to Gaza since August 1990. Worker
remittances from the Gulf states have dropped, unemployment and
popular unrest have increased, and living standards have fallen. The
withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip in May 1994 has added to the
set of adjustment problems. This series of disruptions has meant a
sharp decline in employment in Israel since 1991 and a drop in GDP as
a whole. An estimated 378,000 persons were in refugee camps in 1996.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $1 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: -1% to -2% (1996 est.)