RAMALLAH, West Bank, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have one of the highest rates of population growth in the world, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
In the past 13 years, the Palestinian population has grown by 45 percent, statistics released by the Israeli bureau show, Ynetnews.com reported Monday.
There are approximately 2.513 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and 1.535 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, the report said.
The Gaza Strip has one of the highest densities of population in the world with 4,000 people per square mile, it said.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency says 75 percent of the Palestinian people are Muslims, 8 percent are Christians and 17 percent belong to unspecified religions, Ynetnews said.
The agency says Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza own 1.3 million cellular phones and 356,000 Palestinian homes are linked to the Internet.
The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics says 97 percent of Palestinians living in the West Bank and 39.2 per cent of those living in Gaza have television sets in their homes.
Ynetnews said there are 24 government-sponsored hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza and 52 non-governmental medical facilities with a total of 5,000 beds.
