The population of the region of Palestine, which approximately corresponds to modern Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan, has varied in both size and ethnic composition throughout its history.

The following table shows the total population and that of the main ethno-religious groups living in the area from the First Century CE up until the last full calendar year of the British Mandate, 1947.

Note: Figures prior to the 1500s are all only estimates by researchers. For some periods, there are multiple researchers who have made differing estimates. None should be taken as exact numbers, and further context and detail is available by following links to the full description on Wikipedia as well as links to the original information sources.

      conflicting estimates among different researchers

Overview of the demographics of the region of Palestine from the 1st century CE through 1947 (in thousands)
Year Source Jewish Pagan Samar-
itan[1]		 Chris-tian Muslim Total Driving events
 
0–100
(1st c.) CE		 Bachi[2] Majority … n/a 1,000–
2,500
[3]
  • 66–74 CE: First Jewish–Roman War, Roman Empire defeats Jews in 70 CE. Estimates of Jews killed or who died from famine and disease ranged from less than 300,000(Schwartz)[4], to 600,000 (Tacitus)[5] , to 1.1 million plus 97,000 captured and driven out.(Josephus)[6]
  • 132–135 CE: Bar Kokhba revolt by Jews against Romans

    • 580,000 Judean men killed in battles/raids. Others die from famine, disease and fire (Cassius Dio, Cotton, Raviv, Ben David)[7][8]
    • Raviv:[7] Archeological evidence shows Jewish settlements in Judea almost completely eradicated by 135 CE. However, Jews lived on in Galilee.
    • Klein:[9][10] In Galilee, Roman authorities replaced many Jews with Syrians, Phoenicians, and Arabians.
140 CE† Avi-
Yohan
[11]		 700-
800 		... "far fewer
than 300,000"		 ... n/a 2,500
Broshi
[11]		 n/a <1,000
("never more than 1 million")
Early 300s Stem-
berger
[11]		 Largest
group 		2nd-
largest		 3rd-
largest		 Smallest
group 		n/a ...
  • 400, cities were majority non-Jewish, most land likely owned by non-Jews.
  • 400s: Western Roman Empire collapses, driving Christian immigration. Christianization. Christian majority by 500 CE. (Avi-Yonah)[12][11]
300s Bachi Majority … … Minority n/a "More
than in
1st c."
[13][14]
400s Bachi Minority n/a … Majority n/a
500s n/a … n/a
628 Butler, Gil >250
[15]		 30-80 520-570 >950
  • 629: Heraclius ordered massacre of Jews; ca. 150,000 left, many to Egypt. (Butler, Gil, Schäfer)[16][17][18]
630s Parkes 150–
400 		n/a … … …
  • 635: As Byzantine rule ended and Muslim rule began:
  • Parkes:[19] Est. 150,000–400,000 Jews in all Palestine
  • Crown et al.: Palaestina Prima only, which did not include Galilee, had a population of 700,000, incl. 100,000 Jews and 30–80,000 Samaritans,[20] with the remaining 520-570,000 Chalcedonian and Miaphysite Christians.
  • Gil: Jews and Samaritans together likely formed still formed a majority in 638[21]
  • In the period after 638:
    • Immigration of Arabs (i.e. from the Arabian Peninsula), how many is unclear
    • MFA Israel: Jews flourished at first; Umar encouraged Jews to settle in Jerusalem after 500-year ban.[22]
  • 688–744 (–1033): Frequent plague recurrences and devastating earthquakes in 749, 881 and 1033) caused a steady decline of the population, falling from around 1 million in the 5th c. to a lowest estimate of 400–560,000 by 1096 (start of First Crusade).[23][24] [25][26]
700s n/a …
  • 700s-800s: Civil wars drove Jewish emigration[22]
  • 717: New taxes on and discrimination against Jews drove Jewish emigration[22]
  • ~750-900: Mass Islamization with Muslim majority "visible" by ~966-985 (al-Maqdisi)[27]
800s n/a …
900s n/a …
1095 Ellen-
blum, Della-
Pergola
Broshi		 n/a … 400–
560
End
1100s		 Bachi Minority n/a … Minority Majority >225
1300s Bachi Minority n/a … Minority Majority 150
1533‑9 Bachi 5 n/a … 6 145 156
1553‑4 Bachi 7 n/a … 9 188 205
1690‑1 Bachi 2 n/a <0.2 11 219 232
1800 Bachi 7 n/a <0.2 22 246 275
  • 1882‑1903: First Aliyah about 35,000 Jews immigrate mostly from the Russian Empire and Romania. They join about 20-25,000 Jews in Palestine as of 1880.
1890 Bachi 43 n/a <0.2 57 432 532
1890‑1 Ottoman census 18 n/a <0.2 52 446 516
1914 Bachi 94 n/a <0.2 70 525 689
  • 1904‑1914: Second Aliyah, 35–40,000 Jews immigrate, most from the Russian Empire
1914‑5 Ottoman census 39 n/a <0.2 81 602 722
  • 1919‑1923: Third Aliyah about 40,000 Jews immigrate, mostly from Eastern Europe
1922 British census 84 n/a <0.2 71 589 752
1931 Bachi 175 n/a <0.2 89 760 1,033
  • 1929‑1939: Fifth Aliyah, 250,000 Jews immigrate (of which 174,000 between 1933 and 1936). In 1936 British start to prohibit Jewish immigration.
  • 1933‑1948: Aliyah Bet, about 110,000 Jews immigrate from Europe without British permission
1947 Bachi 630 n/a <0.2 143 1,181 1,970

†including what is today the Kingdom of Jordan

References

  1. ↑ All Samaritan population figures after 1500: "The Samaritan Update". The Samaritanupdate.com. 5 June 2022.
  2. ↑ Figures are from Roberto Bachi's work: Bachi, Roberto (1977). The Population of Israel. C.I.C.R.E.D. Retrieved 11 December 2023. as cited by Sergio DellaPergola in: Pergola, Sergio della (2001). "Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications" (PDF). Semantic Scholar. S2CID 45782452. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-20.
  3. ↑ DellaPergola, Sergio (2003). "Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications". The American Jewish Year Book. 103: Table 2. ISSN 0065-8987. S2CID 141880906. Table 2
  4. ↑ Schwartz, Seth (1984). "Political, social and economic life in the land of Israel". In Davies, William David; Finkelstein, Louis; Katz, Steven T. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Cambridge University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0521772488.
  5. ↑ Tacitus, Histories, Book V, Chapter XIII
  6. ↑ Josephus. BJ. 6.9.3., Perseus Project BJ6.9.3, .
  7. 1 2 Raviv, Dvir; Ben David, Chaim (2021-05-27). "Cassius Dio's figures for the demographic consequences of the Bar Kokhba War: Exaggeration or reliable account?". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 34 (2): 585–607. doi:10.1017/S1047759421000271. ISSN 1047-7594. S2CID 236389017.
  8. ↑ Mohr Siebek et al. Edited by Peter Schäfer. The Bar Kokhba War reconsidered. 2003. P142-3.
  9. ↑ קליין, א' (2011). היבטים בתרבות החומרית של יהודה הכפרית בתקופה הרומית המאוחרת (135–324 לסה"נ).(עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ (Doctoral thesis, Bar-Ilan University) עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 314–315. (Hebrew, Aspects in the Material Culture of Rural Judea in the Late Roman Period (135-324 AD))
  10. ↑ שדמן, ע' (Between Nahal Raba and Nahal Shilo: the layout of the rural settlement in periods 275-271, 2016). בין נחל רבה לנחל שילה: תפרוסת היישוב הכפרי בתקופות ההלניסטית, הרומית והביזנטית לאור חפירות וסקרים. עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 271–275. (Doctoral thesis, Bar-Ilan University, Hebrew)
  11. 1 2 3 4 Stemberger, Gunter (1 December 1999). Jews and Christians in the Holy Land: Palestine in the Fourth Century. A&C Black. pp. 17–22. ISBN 978-0-567-23050-8. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  12. ↑ M. Avi-Yonah, The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule, Jerusalem 1984 chapters XI–XII
  13. ↑ An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations by Edward Kessler P72
  14. ↑ The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period By William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, P:409
  15. ↑ 150,000 expelled in 629 plus 100,000 that remained after 629. Unknown number massacred.
  16. ↑ Butler, Alfred J. (1902). David Mignery (ed.). "The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion".
  17. ↑ Gil, Moshe: A History of Palestine, 634–1099, p. 9 (1997). Cambridge University Press
  18. ↑ Schäfer 2003, p. 198: He had promised the Jews ... amnesty ..., but was unable to hold to this. At the insistence of the leaders of the Christians, who had not forgotten the period of Jewish rule from 614 to 617, he once more expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and had to allow large numbers of them to be executed. Balfour 2012, p. 112: The patriarch of Jerusalem executed those who were known to have taken part in the killings.
  19. ↑ James Parkes (1949). A History of Palestine from 135 A.D. to Modern Times. Victor Gollancz.
  20. ↑ Crown, Alan David; Pummer, Reinhard; Tal, Abraham (eds.). A Companion to Samaritan Studies. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 70–45.
  21. ↑ Gil, Moshe (1997). A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780521599849.
  22. 1 2 3 4 "HISTORY: Foreign Domination". Archived from the original on 2013-06-15.
  23. ↑ Ellenblum, Ronnie (2003). Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521521871.
  24. ↑ Pergola, Sergio della (2001). "Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications" (PDF). Semantic Scholar. S2CID 45782452. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-20.
  25. ↑ Broshi, Magen (1979). "The Population of Western Palestine in the Roman-Byzantine Period". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 236 (236): 1–10. doi:10.2307/1356664. ISSN 0003-097X. JSTOR 1356664. S2CID 24341643.
  26. ↑ Broshi, M., & Finkelstein, I. (1992). "The Population of Palestine in Iron Age II". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 287(1), 47-60.
  27. ↑ Mukaddasi (1886). Le Strange, G. (ed.). Description of Syria, including Palestine. London: Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society.
  28. ↑ Ehrlich, Michael (2022). The Islamization of the Holy Land, 634–1800. Arc Humanity Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-1-64189-222-3. OCLC 1310046222.
  29. ↑ Goitein, S.D. "Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders." Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (1952), pp. 162–177, pg 163
  30. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2020-10-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  31. ↑ Kedar, Benjamin Z., Phillips, Jonathan, Riley-Smith, Jonathan: Crusades: Volume 3, p. 82 (2016), Routledge
  32. ↑ Gil, M. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. p. 294
  33. ↑ Frank Heynick, commenting on Maimonides's decision not to settle there a century later in Heynick, Frank (2002). Jews and medicine, An Epic Saga. KTAV Publishing House. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-88125-773-1.
  34. ↑ Brog, David (20 March 2017). Reclaiming Israel's History: Roots, Rights, and the Struggle for Peace. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781621576099.
  35. ↑ Kelly, J. (2005). The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-000692-1.
  36. ↑ "Ottoman Rule (1517-1917)".
  37. ↑ "Jewish & Non-Jewish Population of Israel/Palestine (1517-Present)". Jewish Virtual Library.

Sources

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