Introduction

Half the Population

A population evenly split

In 2025 there were 2.82 million women and girls in Palestine, almost exactly half the population (about 50.4%).

The sex ratio is 98.5 males per 100 females, so women slightly outnumber men.

This matters for everything that follows: the barriers women face are not the concern of a minority, but of half the country.

Source: UN Population Division, World Population Prospects 2024 Revision. Latest year 2025.

Girls in School

Education is a success story

Girls are enrolled at near-universal rates in primary (91%) and lower-secondary (95%) school.

At upper secondary, girls (87.9%) are ahead of boys (71.1%) in 2023, a reversal of the usual gap.

Palestinian girls are not being left behind in education. This makes what happens next, in the labour market, all the more striking.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics via UN Data Portal. Year 2023.

Shut Out of Work

The economic exclusion

Despite their education, only 18.9% of women were in the labour force in 2022, against 72.1% of men, a gap of more than 50 percentage points.

Participation has risen only slowly over 17 years (from 12.8% in 2005).

This is the central puzzle of the data: women succeed in school but remain largely outside paid work.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO) via UN Data Portal. Years 2005-2022.

Unemployment

Work is hard to find

For the women who do enter the labour force, finding a job is increasingly difficult.

Female unemployment more than doubled, from 16.7% in 2005 to 40.0% in 2022, twice the male rate (20.2%).

So women entered the labour market faster than the economy could absorb them, a sign of demand-side barriers, not lack of willingness to work.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO) via UN Data Portal. Years 2005-2022.

Health Gains

Fewer children, safer births

The total fertility rate fell from 4.4 children per woman in 2010 to 3.2 in 2025, still high but declining steadily.

Maternal mortality also fell sharply over the long run (from 43 per 100,000 in 2010 to 20 in 2020, UN figures).

These are real gains in women’s health, achieved before the current crisis.

Source: UN Population Division, WPP 2024. Years 2010-2025.

Literacy

Near-universal literacy

Female literacy rose from 79.8% in 1997 to 96.8% in 2024, almost universal today.

This is a distinct source (World Bank) from the enrolment data, and it tells the same story: in education and skills, Palestinian women have closed the gap.

The contrast with their 18.9% labour participation is the paradox at the heart of this story.

Source: World Bank Gender Statistics (PSE). Years 1997-2024.

Conclusion

The paradox, and what it means

The data tells one clear story. Palestinian women are educated and healthy: near-universal literacy, girls out-enrolling boys at upper secondary, and falling fertility and maternal mortality.

Yet they are economically excluded: fewer than 1 in 5 are in the labour force, and 2 in 5 of those cannot find work.

The barrier is not ability or schooling. It is the structure of the economy and the labour market.

A note on limits: all figures are pre-crisis baselines. Health-workforce data existed but was not sex-disaggregated, so it was excluded.

Sources: UN Data Portal (UN Statistics, ILO, UNESCO, UN Population Division) and World Bank Gender Statistics.