Population Statistics for Israeli Settlements in the West Bank

The population exceeded half a million in the Interior Ministry-based series at the beginning of 2023, when it stood at 502,991, excluding East Jerusalem.[1] By January 1, 2026, a report compiled from Interior Ministry statistics counted 541,085 Jewish residents, equivalent to approximately 5.32% of Israel’s population.[3] Other statistical series count Israelis or a category termed “Jews and others,” making the population category an important part of each figure.[2][5] Some reports instead describe Israeli citizens or Jewish residents.[3][6]

The main statistical inputs include Central Bureau of Statistics estimates, the Interior Ministry’s Population Registry and Civil Administration information about outposts.[4] One analysis combined all three to estimate 475,944 residents in 2020, excluding East Jerusalem.[4] The CBS district series measures Israelis in Judea and Samaria rather than the Palestinian population living in the territory.[2]

East Jerusalem is particularly important to the geographic scope of the totals: Israeli statistics do not count its settlements as part of the West Bank settlement population.[7] A 2021 estimate of 465,400 Israeli Jews in West Bank settlements consequently used a different geographic definition from a Palestinian-official figure of 751,000 Jewish residents that included settlements in the Jerusalem suburbs.[7] Regional settlement totals also differ from the narrower population of Israeli localities within the Judea and Samaria section of metropolitan Jerusalem.[5]

A historical population figure for the end of 1993 put the number of Israeli residents at 116,340, while a community-based historical series recorded 176,856 in 1999.[6][8] A March 2005 background article gave a contemporary estimate of close to 400,000 Israeli settlers and approximately 2.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank.[9] These are historical estimates, rather than current population counts.[9]

For 2009, a combined-source analysis recorded 296,395 settlers, excluding East Jerusalem; by 2020, its total had reached 475,944, an increase of approximately 61%.[4] A separate historical community series listed 299,340 for 2009, 463,353 for 2020 and 490,493 for 2022.[8] That series distinguishes its 1999–2023 data from the more recent community table and includes communities with missing entries or changed administrative groupings.[8]

The CBS-based district series recorded approximately 370,700 Israelis at the beginning of 2015 and 511,100 at the end of 2024.[2] This represented an increase of approximately 139,400 residents, or 38%.[2] A separate series covering Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley recorded growth from approximately 374,000 in 2013 to 517,000 in 2023, also described as 38%.[10]

For 2019, CBS estimates put the Jewish settlement population at approximately 427,800 early in the year and 441,600 at year-end.[11] A registry-based annual report used 449,508 as its 2019 comparison figure when calculating subsequent growth.[12] The separate annual compilation listed 463,353 for 2020, 475,481 for 2021 and 490,493 for 2022.[13]

A CBS estimate counted 465,400 Israeli Jews in West Bank settlements in 2021.[7] Another report gave nearly 492,000 Israeli citizens by January 2022, following an increase of 16,000, or 3.3%, during 2021.[6] A distinct estimate for 2022 counted 468,300 residents of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria and listed 236,600 Jews in East Jerusalem separately.[14]

At the beginning of 2023, the Interior Ministry-based count stood at 502,991.[1] A separate community report recorded 502,678 Israeli residents across approximately 150 communities, representing 5.2% of Israel’s population, and reported growth of 2.2% during 2022 compared with 3.3% in 2021.[15] It also reported that 10,755 Israelis moved to West Bank communities during 2022.[15]

The registry-based population reached 517,407 on December 31, 2023, also presented as the January 1, 2024 total.[1][12] The annual report calculated growth of 2.87% during 2023 and 15.11% since its 2019 baseline.[12] The corresponding human-rights report described the increase as almost 3% during 2023 and more than 15% since 2018.[1]

A report issued in January 2025 recorded 529,704 residents in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, excluding East Jerusalem.[16] It reported an increase of 12,297 during 2024, annual growth of 2.38%, decade-long growth of 36%, and a population equivalent to approximately 5.28% of Israel’s total.[16] A separate CBS-based situation report gave 515,437 Israelis on December 31, 2024, associated with 134 settlements, 221 outposts and a number of agricultural farms.[17]

By January 1, 2026, the registry-based report counted 541,085 Jewish residents, excluding East Jerusalem.[3] It calculated growth of 2.2% during 2025, twice the national growth rate of 1.1%, and an increase of 13.8% from its 2021 count of 475,481.[3] The community table also lists 541,085, under its 2025 column, with a footnote dating the data to January 1, 2026.[8]

The security barrier provides one geographic framework for analyzing settlement populations: in a 2020 calculation excluding East Jerusalem, 364,203 residents lived west of the barrier and 111,741 east of it.[4] These represented 76.5% and 23.5% of the total, respectively.[4] The east-of-barrier share was almost unchanged from 23.6% in 2009, despite the substantial increase in the overall population.[4]

Counting East Jerusalem on the western side raised the west-of-barrier share to approximately 84%.[4] The Jerusalem municipal boundary and the barrier route do not exactly coincide, and the barrier classification is a measurement framework rather than a final-status boundary.[4]

Another 2020 settlement analysis allocated 466,208 residents among 130 settlements.[18] It counted 358,405 residents in 52 settlements inside the barrier and 107,803 in 78 settlements outside it, with the inside group accounting for 77% of that analysis’s total.[18] These figures belong to that analysis’s settlement categories, rather than the separate calculation totaling 475,944.[18][4]

Metropolitan tables provide a narrower view of the population around Jerusalem.[19][5] In 2019, the Judea and Samaria section of metropolitan Jerusalem contained 29 Israeli localities with 193,300 residents.[19] At year-end 2023, the corresponding section contained 30 localities and 214,800 residents, including 214,500 classified as “Jews and others” and 300 classified as Arabs.[5] These are metropolitan subsection counts, not totals for all West Bank settlements.[19][5]

The metropolitan framework distinguishes Jerusalem’s core from its outer ring and identifies a specific subsection for Israeli localities in Judea and Samaria.[5] Those localities were excluded from the yearbook’s population-density calculation, an additional distinction when using its population and density statistics together.[5]

Community-level figures identify the largest localities more precisely than regional totals.[3][8] On January 1, 2026, Modi’in Illit had 92,339 residents and Beitar Illit 74,760, followed by Ma’ale Adumim with 40,800, Giv’at Ze’ev with 25,630 and Ariel with 22,273.[3] The community compilation lists the same figures for Modi’in Illit, Beitar Illit, Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel under its 2025 column.[8]

Settlement and outpost counts use several different administrative categories.[10][20] A late-2025 estimate identified approximately 150 state-authorized settlements outside East Jerusalem and approximately 220 unauthorized outposts, with the outposts’ combined population described as being in the tens of thousands.[20] An undated estimate listed approximately 400,000 Israelis in 131 settlements and 97 outposts, with approximately 80% living in the main settlement blocs near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.[21]

A separate count recorded 128 recognized settlements before the government took office in 2023 and 50 subsequent recognitions, producing a reported total of 178.[10] The 50 comprised 19 places already existing on the ground, seven grazing farms, 14 neighborhoods within existing settlements and 10 communities existing only on paper.[10] Consequently, these administrative additions did not all represent newly populated localities.[10]

Registration changes can also affect individual community figures: some recently legalized towns had only a few registered residents because people living there were still registered in neighboring communities.[3] The 2026 report nevertheless identified very high annual percentage growth in several small localities, including Avigail at 720%, Asael at 644.8%, Shacharit at 600%, Givat HaRoeh at 169.4% and Beit Hogla at 111.6%.[3]

Population growth in Judea and Samaria exceeded Israel’s overall percentage growth in every year from 2015 through 2024 in the CBS-based district analysis.[2] The average gap was 1.3 percentage points, with the district’s growth rate averaging approximately 1.7 times the national rate and exceeding 3% annually on average.[2] The registry-based 2026 report likewise recorded a rate twice the national figure during 2025.[3]

Natural increase contributed approximately 12,000 people annually in the district analysis.[2] In 2024, the internal migration balance was negative by approximately 1,600 people, while departures abroad also exceeded immigration to the district.[2] Under the CBS methodology changed in 2009, final population growth is not simply the sum of natural increase and net migration.[2]

Large communities account for a substantial share of the population and its natural increase.[17] The end-of-2024 situation report placed approximately 75% of residents in the area around Modi’in Illit, Beitar Illit and Ma’ale Adumim.[17] Modi’in Illit and Beitar Illit together accounted for approximately one-third of the population and close to half of total natural increase in that report.[17] A January 2023 community report counted 214,676 residents across its four largest communities: Modi’in Illit, Beitar Illit, Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel.[15]

Religious composition is another dimension of the demographic picture.[22] One community report divided the population into 36% ultra-Orthodox, 36% religious Zionist and 28% secular.[22] A later estimate placed the Haredi share close to 40% in 2023 and counted approximately 145,000 residents in Modi’in Illit and Beitar Illit together, or about 28% of the settlement total.[22]

Population reports also include forward-looking scenarios distinct from recorded counts.[3][12] The annual report using January 2024 data projected 613,554 residents by 2030.[12] The report using January 2026 figures projected a population exceeding 600,000 by 2030, reaching 685,112 by 2035 and one million by 2050.[3] These figures are projections rather than observed population totals.[3]

Political statements can use different horizons from demographic projections.[17] In December 2024, Likud Knesset member Avihai Boaron described “700,000 residents and more houses in four years” as the outcome of using a political opportunity “foolishly,” contrasting it with a broader plan to change the region’s administrative status.[17]

The central interpretive dispute concerns geographic scope, particularly whether East Jerusalem is included.[7][20] One early-2025 estimate gave more than 737,000 settlers including East Jerusalem, compared with 503,000 excluding it.[20] Estimates of East Jerusalem’s Jewish or Israeli population also vary: a 2023 report cited more than 200,000 Israelis, while the community-table footnote gives 340,000 Jews in 23 Jerusalem communities excluded from its settlement total.[15][8] The classification of East Jerusalem communities as settlements is disputed alongside the status of Israeli sovereignty there.[20]

Statistical methods and date labels further limit direct comparisons.[4][13] The combined-source analysis identifies differing government methodologies and reduced precision in CBS estimates for small populations.[4] A university compilation presents 2024 estimates of 517,407 and 478,600 without reconciling their coverage, while the community and annual tables assign different totals to several recent year labels.[23][13] These differences do not establish a single interchangeable series; each figure needs its own reference date, population category and geographic scope.[4][23]