Despite the displacement of more than 800,000 Palestinians in 1948 and more than 200,000 Palestinians to Jordan and other countries after the 1967 war, the 2017 Population, Housing and Establishments Census showed that the Palestinian population in the State of Palestine at the end of 2017 was recorded as 4.8 million, both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to 1.56 million in the occupied territories in 1948.

The demographic statistics reveal that the Palestinian population has doubled nine times since the Nakba, know as "The Catastrophe", which refers to the process of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, including killings, systematic displacement of the population from their land and homes, etc.

The population of Palestine in 1914 was around 690,000, of whom only 8% were Jewish. In 1948, the number of Palestinians exceeded 2 million, 31.5% of them were Jewish. The number of Jewish doubled more than six times during this period. Between 1932 and 1939, the largest number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine reached 225,000 people. Between 1940 and 1947, more than 93,000 Jews poured into Palestine. Palestine received around 318,000 Jews between 1932 and 1947 and 540,000 from 1948 to 1975.

In Jerusalem (Al-Quds) Governorate, Palestinians count around 435,000 people, according to the census of 2017 results. 64.6% of them (281,000 people) live in those parts of Jerusalem, which were annexed by Israeli Occupation in 1967. These data show that the Palestinians represent 49.4% of the population of historic Palestine. It is worthy to mention that the number of Palestinians in the world reached around 13 million people by the end of 2017. This means that the number of Palestinians in the world has doubled more than 9 times since the events of the Nakba in 1948.

The Nakba resulted in the displacement of 800,000 out of the 1.4 million Palestinians who lived in historical Palestine in 1948 in 1,300 villages and towns. The majority of the displaced Palestinians ended up in neighbouring Arab countries, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and other countries around the world. Furthermore, thousands of Palestinians – who stayed in the area controlled by the Israeli occupation in1948 – were driven out of their homes and lands, seized by the Occupation Power.