BEIRUT, December 21, 2017 (WAFA) – A new census of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon carried out over a one year period in 12 camps and 156 communities showed that their number amounts to 174422 people, Miral Tutilian, director general of the Lebanese Central Bureau of Statistics, said on Thursday.

The announcement was made during a presentation in Beirut of the results of the “General Population Census in the Camps and Palestinian Communities in Lebanon" held in partnership between with the Lebanese Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and announced by the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee in the presence of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the director of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics Ola Awad.

Results of the census showed that the number of Palestinian refugees in the camps and communities reached 174,422 in 2017 living in 12 camps and 156 Palestinian communities in the five governorates of Lebanon. Results also showed that 45% of the Palestinian refugees live in the camps compared to 55% who live in Palestinian communities and adjacent areas, with a concentration of 35.8% in the Sidon region, 25.1% in the north, 14.7% in Tire, 13.4% in Beirut, 7.1% in Shouf and 4% in the Bekaa.

The results also showed that there is a change in the demographic composition of the population in the camps where the number of non-Palestinian refugees in some camps to the number of refugees, such as in Shatila camp where 57.7% are displaced Syrians compared to 29.7% Palestinian refugees. The percentage of displaced in Burj al-Barajneh camp was 47.9% compared to 44.8% Palestinian refugees and Mar Elias camp has 39% displaced Syrians and 34.4% in Beddawi camp.

The results showed that the Palestinians in the camps constitute about 72.8%, among them 65.4% are Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon, 7.4% displaced Palestinian refugees from Syria, and about 4.9% of the Palestinian refugees have non-Palestinian nationality.

The results indicated that 7.2% of Palestinian refugees are illiterate and the number of the labor force among Palestinian refugees is 51,393 with an 18.4% unemployment rate among them. The results indicated that the unemployment rate among individuals aged 15-19 years was 43.7% and 20-29 years 28.5%.

The data indicated that the number of Palestinian families in the camps and communities reached 52,147families, 7.2% of whom were Palestinian men married to Lebanese women and 2.4% Lebanese men married to Palestinian women.