Palestinian Child Day: Statistics about the Palestinian children’s situation

H.E. Dr. Awad, highlights the Palestinian children’s situation on the Occasion of the Palestinian Child Day, 05/04/2022.

H.E. Dr. Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), highlighted the Palestinian children’s situation on the Occasion of the Palestinian Child Day marking Tuesday 05/04/2022:                                                                            

Almost half of the Palestinian society are children

The estimated number of children (under 18 years) is expected to be 2.35 million in Palestine by mid-2022, with 1.20 million males and 1.15 million females. Children in Palestine represent 43.9% of the total population (41.7% in the West Bank, and 47.3% in Gaza Strip).

Number of children by age group, region, and sex, mid-2022

Age group	West Bank		Gaza Strip
	Males	Females	Males	Females
0-4	207,732	200,377	169,115	163,078
5-9	192,910	182,311	142,111	135,776
10-14	178,664	170,319	139,014	132,908
15-17	100,375	96,391	72,458	69,311
Total	679,681	649,398	522,698	501,073

Significant progress in completing the process of birth registration

Birth registration is an important step towards protecting individual rights and providing access to justice and social services for every person. Data showed that the percentage of births under 5 years of age registered in Palestine reached 99.2% in the civil registry in 2019, where it was 98.9% in the West Bank and 99.5% in Gaza Strip.

12 % of  marriage contracts were for females under 18 years old

Data showed that there is a decline in the percentage of early marriage (for those under the age of 18) for both sexes, where it reached 11.9% of the total number of registered marriages among females in 2020 (4.3% in the West Bank and 19.3% in Gaza Strip) compared with 24% in 2010. Whereas, the percentage of early marriage among males under 18 years old reached 0.5% of the total number of registered marriages in 2020 compared to 2% in 2010.

Child labour in the age group (10-17 years) in the West Bank is higher than in Gaza Strip

Data showed that the percentage of employed children (paid or unpaid) reached about 2.5% of the total number of children (10-17 years) in 2021: 3.8% in the West Bank and 0.9% in Gaza Strip (4.8% male children and 0.2% female children).

Moreover, the percentage of children enrolled in schools and engaged in the labour market reached 0.9% (1.5% in the West Bank and 0.2% in Gaza Strip). As for gender distribution, the percentage was 1.7% for male children and 0.1% for female children during 2021.

41.6% of children aged (10-17 years) working in Palestine are wage employees, and the percentage of those working as unpaid family members reached 47.2%.

About a quarter of the population in Palestine are school students

The number of school students for the scholastic year 2020/2021 in Palestine reached about 1.34  million students, out of which 1.078  million were students in elementary stage (50.8% males and 49.2% females), 260 thousand students in the secondary stage (45.0% males and 55.0% females).

Percentage of literate females is significantly higher than males

52.7% of children aged (7-14) years demonestarte basic reading skills[1]; of which 47.8% for males while it was 57.3% for females during 2019/2020. In the West Bank, 57.6% of the children were successful in obtaining basic reading skills while this precentage declined to 47.0% in Gaza Strip.

The percentage of children with basic numeracy skills in the West Bank is higher than in Gaza Strip

45.8% of children aged 7-14 years have basic numeracy skills in 2019/2020 with no difference between males and females. While 53.7% of the children in the West Bank were successful in obtaining basic numeracy skills compared to 36.6% in Gaza Strip.

The majority of children were exposed to physical and/or psychological punishment

Nine out of ten (90.1%) children aged (1-14 years) were exposed to physical and/or psychological punishment in 2019/2020 from care givers (father, mother, other caregivers), of which 92.3% among males and 87.9% among females;92.3% in Gaza Strip and 88.3% in the West Bank.

78 martyrs were children in 2021

According to the records of the Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP), 78 children (under 18 years) were martyred in 2021, 17 child martyrs in the West Bank and 61 child martyrs in the Gaza Strip. When distributed according to age groups there are 26 children aged (0-8 years), 17 children aged (9-12 years), 20 children  aged (13-15 years) and 15 children aged (16-17 years).

160 children are detained in the Israeli prisons

Data of the Palestinian Prisoners Society indicated that the number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons reached about 4,400 prisoners until the end of February 2022, including 160 children, representing 3.6% of the total number of prisoners. As they are still in detention, they are deprived of their childhood, including continuing their studies, in addition to being subjected to violations during arrest, which violates the regulations and conducts of the International Law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

[1] Basic reading skills requires children surveyd to read a short text and to answer comprehension questions.