Palestine

AsiaCapital metro: RamallahMost important metro: GazaPresident: Mahmoud Abbas
2026 population
5.6M
Rank #121 globally
Area
6k km² (2k sq mi)
Metros tracked
6
66% of population in metros
Composite score
1.2
Rank #184 globally

population: National annual projection (31 Dec 2025) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 6 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography6 metros

Palestine metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
6 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 6 tracked metros
6 metros
🗂️ Territories

2 entries listed under Palestine. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

2 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
Arabic
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.

📰 In the news3 stories
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Human Dev. Index
#131 / 191
0.674
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#139 / 193
$17.2B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#138 / 193
$3.2k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#153 / 190
$5.0k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#137 / 192
$3.3k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#138 / 194
69.2 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
19.8 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#28 / 194
87%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.3%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#7 / 193
857/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#89 / 193
5.0%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#55 / 175
0.79
V-Dem · 1948
Gini index
#95 / 166
36.4
World Bank · 2023
Internet users
#74 / 193
87%
World Bank · 2023
Inflation
#162 / 185
9.8%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#52 / 192
0.9 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#83 / 186
39%
Ember · 2024

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

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Mahmoud Abbas✦ Current

2005Present

President

Fatah

Rawhi Fattuh

20042005

Acting President

Fatah

Yasser Arafat

19892004

President

Fatah / PLO
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#178 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Palestine · share of world power, 1991–2026

The powerline 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.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19451 interstate war · click to expand
1949,Safi Rebellion,Afghanistan,Safi rebels
Combat deaths:

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
5.4m
#121 in the world
Since 1800
33×
from 166k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.07%
0.02% in 1800
1.4m2.8m4.3m5.7m18001850190019502000
Palestine · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

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.

Peak on the median
after 2100
still growing at 2100
2050
8.5m
95% band 4.5m to 15.2m
2100
11.5m
95% band 3.1m to 58.2m
2100 against 2025
2.05×
median still rising in 2100
15.3m30.6m45.8m61.1m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
46k born · 20k died · -18k net migration
TFR 7.84 · life expectancy 45.7 · median age 16.1
1960
54k born · 19k died · -18k net migration
TFR 7.79 · life expectancy 49.3 · median age 15.1
1970
56k born · 14k died · -31k net migration
TFR 7.65 · life expectancy 55.4 · median age 14.3
1980
69k born · 12k died · -15k net migration
TFR 7.18 · life expectancy 62.2 · median age 14.1
1990
98k born · 11k died · -476 net migration
TFR 6.81 · life expectancy 67.8 · median age 14.4
2000
121k born · 13k died · -11k net migration
TFR 5.46 · life expectancy 70.3 · median age 15.1
2010
139k born · 14k died · -26k net migration
TFR 4.43 · life expectancy 73.3 · median age 17.3
2020
146k born · 17k died · -12k net migration
TFR 3.51 · life expectancy 75.0 · median age 19.3
Show all 16 decades
2030
146k born · 18k died · -18k net migration
TFR 2.93 · life expectancy 78.1 · median age 21.3
2040
158k born · 25k died · -11k net migration
TFR 2.59 · life expectancy 79.7 · median age 24.5
2050
153k born · 33k died · -11k net migration
TFR 2.34 · life expectancy 81.3 · median age 28.0
2060
146k born · 43k died · -8k net migration
TFR 2.15 · life expectancy 82.7 · median age 31.3
2070
144k born · 57k died · -9k net migration
TFR 2.02 · life expectancy 84.1 · median age 34.4
2080
134k born · 73k died · -10k net migration
TFR 1.93 · life expectancy 85.3 · median age 37.6
2090
126k born · 87k died · -11k net migration
TFR 1.87 · life expectancy 86.5 · median age 40.7
2100
119k born · 103k died · -9k net migration
TFR 1.82 · life expectancy 87.5 · median age 43.2

Every country to 2100 →

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. Click a card for the full record.