Palestine
population: National annual projection (31 Dec 2025) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 6 metros tracked
🗺️ Geography6 metros
Palestine metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.
Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.
🏙️ 6 tracked metros
🗂️ Territories
2 entries listed under Palestine. Select any to see its metros and footprint.
📋 At a glance
- Official language
- Arabic
- Currency
- New shekel (₪)
- Government
- Parliamentary republic
- Legislature
- Palestinian Legislative Council
- Demonym
- Palestinian
- Time zones
- UTC+02:00, UTC+03:00
- Driving side
- Right
- Calling code
- +970
- Internet TLD
- .ps
- ISO 3166
- PS
- Established
- 1988
- Highest point
- Mount Nabi Yunis (1,026 m (3,366 ft))
- National anthem
- Fida'i
Facts via Wikidata.
🗣️ Languages of Palestine
Standard Arabic first; 2 languages share the country; 1 official.
| Language | Share | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Arabic | 100% | Official | CLDR, country |
| Levantine Arabic | 87% | None | CLDR, country |
Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.
- Effective languages
- 1.0
- Official-language gap
- 0%
- Standard Arabic is spoken by 100%
📰 In the news3 stories
The Washington Post · 30 Aug 2026
"Sliman Mansour has died. His art became a symbol of Palestinian resilience."Further reading from the day's section on the deaths of Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and Yayoi Kusama.
Semafor · 17 Aug 2026
US, Hamas hold rare direct talksJared Kushner met Hamas's leader in Egypt for rare direct talks, pushing for disarmament, with a Netanyahu meeting expected Monday.
The Washington Post · 2 Aug 2026
"In Trump Gaza deal, Hamas disarms, Israel withdraws. Neither wants to go first."The Board of Peace's 15-point Hamas disarmament plan immediately hit the sequencing problem every ceasefire since the 1990s has died on.
💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.
Alliances & Organisations1 full membership
Political & Economic
Regional
Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer
🏛️ Leadership History3 leaders · click to expand
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
The power line is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.
⚔️ Wars and conflicts1 interstate war · click to expand
| Conflict | Years | Against | Combat deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine | 1947–1948 | Jewish National Council,Haganah,Palmach,Irgun,Lehi,Foreign volunteers (Mahal),Allied Bedouin tribes | 1,886+ |
Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.” Figures marked “COW battle deaths” are Correlates of War battle-death counts, which run lower than total deaths.
👥 Population over time
Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.
👥 To 2100
The UN’s probabilistic projection for Palestine: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.
What drives it
Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.
Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.
🏆 National Teams
Palestine on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.