Elderly represent 4.4% of Palestinian population

Elderly people of 60 years of age and over in the Palestinian Territory represent 4.4% of the total population in mid-2011, said the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in a press release on the Eve of World Elderly Day onOctober 1st. It said the Palestinian Territory has witnessed an improvement in life expectancy since the beginning of the last decade. Life expectancy has  increased about 4-7 years during the last decade as well as during the last five years. In particular, life expectancy increased for both males and females from 67.0 years in 1992 to 71.0 years for males and 73.9 years for females in mid-2011. The release said that life expectancy is expected to increase during the coming years to reach 72.0 years for males and 75.0 years for females in 2015. The increase of survival  rates at birth resulted in the increase of the elderly numbers in the Palestinian Territory, which requires studying and researching the situation of the elderly, PCBS said. The Palestinian society is considered a young society where the percentage of youth is about half of society and the percentage of the elderly is relatively small. In mid-2011, the percentage of the elderly (aged 60 and over) reached 4.4% of the population in the Palestinian Territory: 4.8% in the West Bank and 3.7% in the Gaza Strip. In comparison, the percentage of the elderly in all developed countries reached about 16.0% of the population in 2010, while the percentage in all developing countries reached about 6.0%. Even though the percentage of the elderly will be increasing in the coming years in the Palestinian Territory, their percentage will be relatively low and will not exceed 4.5% in the next 10 years. The percentage may start increasing after 2020. The percentage of males aged 60 and over in the Palestinian Territory is about 3.8% in 2011 against 5.0% for females, or 79.7 males against 100 females. Moreover, 2010 data indicates that the percentage of extended families in the Palestinian Territory reached 12%: 10.6% in the West Bank and 16.3% in the Gaza Strip. The percentage of households headed by an elderly person is 15.2% in the Palestinian Territory: 16.4% in the West Bank and 13.1% in the Gaza Strip. The data indicates that the average size of the households headed by an elderly person is relatively small, reaching 4.1 individuals against 6.3 for the households not presided over by an elderly person in 2010: 3.9 individuals for West Bank households and 4.5 individuals for Gaza Strip households. About 90.8% of elderly males in the Palestinian Territory are married, against 42.8% of elderly married females. The percentage of elderly widowed males reached 8.4% against 49.7% for females in 2010. The percentage of the elderly contribution is about 14.0% of the total labor force in the Palestinian Territory during the second quarter of the year 2011, PCBS said: 17.5% in the West Bank and 6.5% in the Gaza Strip. The percentage of the elderly who have not completed any education reached  60.9% (40.2% males and 77.4% females) with 44.8% of total elderly persons being illiterate. The Palestinian Family Survey 2010 data indicates that 70.6% of the elderly aged 60 and over are infected with at least one chronic disease (71.6% in West Bank and 68.6% in Gaza strip) in the Palestinian Territory. The data indicated  that females are more infected with 75.1% against 64.7% males. The data indicated that the percentage of poverty among  the elderly in 2010 reached 25.0% of all elderly persons: 21.1% in the West Bank against 33.3% in the Gaza Strip. 2010 data indicated that 47.8% of the elderly in the Palestinian Territory do not read newspapers or magazines at all (41.2% in West Bank and 60.0% in Gaza Strip), while 64.5% of the elderly watch television daily and 27.7% listen to the radio daily.