RAMALLAH, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) announced that women constitute about 49% of the total population in Palestine by the end of 2025, amounting to 2.74 million women.
The PCBS explained in a statement issued on Sunday, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, that the number of women is about 1.69 million in the West Bank and 1.06 million in the Gaza Strip, stressing that this demographic presence reflects the central role of women in Palestinian society.
The data revealed that 22,057 women in the Gaza Strip lost their husbands and became widows since the outbreak of the Israeli genocide, which led to an increase in the percentage of households headed by women from 12% before the war to about 18% during the period of the aggression.
The data showed that women’s participation in the labor force in Gaza remained at 17% during 2025, while men’s participation declined from 63% to 31%. The unemployment rate among women reached 92% compared with 81% among men.
In the West Bank, women’s participation in the labor force recorded about 19% compared with 72% for men, while the unemployment rate among women reached 27% compared with 28% among men.
The Bureau pointed to a rise in the unemployment rate among youth aged between 19 and 29 who hold a medium diploma or higher to 79%, with 86% for females compared with 70% for males, reflecting the widening economic gap between the sexes.
In the health sector, the data showed that about 94% of health care facilities in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed, at a time when about 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are facing acute malnutrition during the period between October 2023 and October 2025.
Health indicators also recorded a sharp rise in the maternal mortality rate, reaching 145 cases per 100,000 live births in 2024, compared with 17.4 cases in 2022, in a dangerous indicator of the deterioration of health services.
The data also showed that breast cancer constitutes about 30% of the total cancer cases among women in Gaza, at a rate of 29 infections per 100,000 women, amid the suspension of early detection and treatment services for more than two years.
